The costs of coalition / Carol Mershon.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-289) and index.

Pt. 1. The Puzzle, Its Pieces, and a Solution. 1. How Can Governments Fall at Low Cost? 2. Costs in Coalition Theories. 3. Explaining Variations in the Costs of Coalition -- Pt. 2. Within-Nation Comparisons: The Italian Anomaly. 4. The Pursuit of Cost-Reduction Strategies. 5. Costs and Outcomes in Italian Coalition Politics -- Pt. 3. Cross-National Comparisons. 6. The Bases for Comparison: Variations in Institutions and Policy Space. 7. The Costs of Building Coalitions. 8. The Costs of Breaking Coalitions. 9. Conclusions. App. B. Scope of Data Sets in Coalition Studies -- App. C. Governments Included in This Study -- App. E. Subsets of Data in This Database -- App. F. Evidence on Feedback Effects.

"The Costs of Coalition tackles big questions of enduring interest in real-world politics and in political science. The substantive aim of the book is to understand and explain who governs, and for how long, under the institutions of parliamentary democracy. Its epistemological purpose is to investigate the nature of political scientists' knowledge of coalitional behavior and how to advance it."--BOOK JACKET.