The role of parliament under ministerial government
The present paper is concerned with the preconditions for ministerial government in Iceland and the role of parliament in sustaining it. Ministerial government is a form of coalition governance where the division of portfolios between parties functions as the basic mechanism of managing coalitions....
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University of Iceland
2018
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 https://doaj.org/article/bdfb55ca71d14416810300e91351b887 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:bdfb55ca71d14416810300e91351b887 2023-05-15T16:45:34+02:00 The role of parliament under ministerial government Indriði H. Indriðason Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson 2018-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 https://doaj.org/article/bdfb55ca71d14416810300e91351b887 EN IS eng ice University of Iceland http://www.irpa.is/article/view/2747 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-6803 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-679X 1670-6803 1670-679X doi:10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 https://doaj.org/article/bdfb55ca71d14416810300e91351b887 Stjórnmál og Stjórnsýsla, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 149-166 (2018) Ministerial government coalition management bill amendment Iceland Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 2022-12-31T04:41:57Z The present paper is concerned with the preconditions for ministerial government in Iceland and the role of parliament in sustaining it. Ministerial government is a form of coalition governance where the division of portfolios between parties functions as the basic mechanism of managing coalitions. Ministers are policy dictators in the sense that they control their ministries without interference from their coalition partners. Ministerial government is considered a weak form of coalition governance in the literature on account of its susceptibility to principal-agent problems, i.e., the temptation of ministers to adopt policies which are beneficial to their own party, or themselves, even if they are harmful to the coalition as a whole. We argue that ministerial government was the guiding principle of coalition governance in Iceland prior to the crash of 2008. We demonstrate that given a number of conditions, ministerial government can in fact function effectively in the sense of providing the necessary minimum of inter-coalition checks. Instead of the cabinet providing oversight, however, the parties and committees in parliament play a key role in controlling policy drift. For a number of reasons, the financial crash in Iceland undermined some of the features on which ministerial government rested and coalition co-ordination after the crash has diverged significantly from the preceding period. It is too early, however, to tell whether these represent a permanent shift in coalition management in Iceland. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla 14 1 149 166 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English Icelandic |
topic |
Ministerial government coalition management bill amendment Iceland Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 |
spellingShingle |
Ministerial government coalition management bill amendment Iceland Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 Indriði H. Indriðason Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson The role of parliament under ministerial government |
topic_facet |
Ministerial government coalition management bill amendment Iceland Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 |
description |
The present paper is concerned with the preconditions for ministerial government in Iceland and the role of parliament in sustaining it. Ministerial government is a form of coalition governance where the division of portfolios between parties functions as the basic mechanism of managing coalitions. Ministers are policy dictators in the sense that they control their ministries without interference from their coalition partners. Ministerial government is considered a weak form of coalition governance in the literature on account of its susceptibility to principal-agent problems, i.e., the temptation of ministers to adopt policies which are beneficial to their own party, or themselves, even if they are harmful to the coalition as a whole. We argue that ministerial government was the guiding principle of coalition governance in Iceland prior to the crash of 2008. We demonstrate that given a number of conditions, ministerial government can in fact function effectively in the sense of providing the necessary minimum of inter-coalition checks. Instead of the cabinet providing oversight, however, the parties and committees in parliament play a key role in controlling policy drift. For a number of reasons, the financial crash in Iceland undermined some of the features on which ministerial government rested and coalition co-ordination after the crash has diverged significantly from the preceding period. It is too early, however, to tell whether these represent a permanent shift in coalition management in Iceland. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Indriði H. Indriðason Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson |
author_facet |
Indriði H. Indriðason Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson |
author_sort |
Indriði H. Indriðason |
title |
The role of parliament under ministerial government |
title_short |
The role of parliament under ministerial government |
title_full |
The role of parliament under ministerial government |
title_fullStr |
The role of parliament under ministerial government |
title_full_unstemmed |
The role of parliament under ministerial government |
title_sort |
role of parliament under ministerial government |
publisher |
University of Iceland |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 https://doaj.org/article/bdfb55ca71d14416810300e91351b887 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Stjórnmál og Stjórnsýsla, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 149-166 (2018) |
op_relation |
http://www.irpa.is/article/view/2747 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-6803 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-679X 1670-6803 1670-679X doi:10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 https://doaj.org/article/bdfb55ca71d14416810300e91351b887 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2018.14.1.7 |
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Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla |
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14 |
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1 |
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149 |
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166 |
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