Open AccessWhen Marriage Gets Hard: Intra-Coalition Conflict and Electoral Accountability
Author(s) -
Carolina Plescia,
Sylvia Kritzinger
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
comparative political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.017
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1552-3829
pISSN - 0010-4140
DOI - 10.1177/00104140211024307
Subject(s) - accountability , punishment (psychology) , government (linguistics) , politics , attribution , political science , representation (politics) , political economy , economics , social psychology , psychology , law , linguistics , philosophy
Combining individual-level with event-level data across 25 European countries and three sets of European Election Studies, this study examines the effect of conflict between parties in coalition government on electoral accountability and responsibility attribution. We find that conflict increases punishment for poor economic performance precisely because it helps clarify to voters parties’ actions and responsibilities while in office. The results indicate that under conditions of conflict, the punishment is equal for all coalition partners when they share responsibility for poor economic performance. When there is no conflict within a government, the effect of poor economic evaluations on vote choice is rather low, with slightly more punishment targeted to the prime minister’s party. These findings have important implications for our understanding of electoral accountability and political representation in coalition governments.