University of Bamberg
open search form
You are here

Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics, and Business Administration

Chair of Empirical Political Science

  1.  University of bamberg
  2. Faculties
  3. Social Sciences, Economics and Business Administration
  4. Subjects and Institutes
  5. Political Science
  6. Chairs and Professorships
  7. Chair of Empirical Political Science
  8. News
  9. New article in the British Journal of Political Science

New article in the British Journal of Political Science

Ulrich Sieberer and co-authors show that the design of European cabinets is reformed frequently and follows a political logic.

The design of government portfolios, i.e. the distribution of competencies among government ministries and office holders, constitutes a largely ignored aspect of executive and coalition politics. In this article, we argue that portfolio design is a substantively and theoretically relevant phenomenon with major implications for the study of institutional design and coalition politics. Based on comparative data on portfolio design reforms in nine Western European countries since the 1970s, we show how the design of government portfolios changes over time. Specifically, we show that portfolio design is changed frequently (on average about once a year) and that these reforms are more likely after changes in the prime ministership and the party composition of the government. Our findings suggest a political logic behind these reforms based on the preferences and power of political parties and politicians. They have major implications for the study of institutional design and coalition politics.

Sieberer, Ulrich/Meyer, Thomas M./Bäck, Hanna/Ceron, Andrea/Falcó-Gimeno, Albert/Guinaudeau, Isabelle/Hansen, Martin Ejnar/Kollveit, Kristoffer/Louwerse, Tom/Müller, Wolfgang C./Persson, Thomas, 2019, The political dynamics of portfolio design in European democracies, British Journal of Political Science First View doi: 10.1017/S0007123419000346. Link