The performance of four possible rules for selecting the Prime Minister after the Dutch Parliamentary elections of June 2010

Thomas Colignatus ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Economic policy depends not only on national elections but also on coalition bargaining strategies. In coalition government, minority parties bargain on policy and form a majority coalition, and select a Prime Minister from their mids. In Holland the latter is done conventionally with Plurality, so that the largest party provides the chair of the cabinet. Alternative methods are Condorcet, Borda or Borda Fixed Point. Since the role of the Prime Minister is to be above all parties and represent the nation and to be there for all citizens, it would enhance democracy and likely be optimal if the potential Prime Minister is selected from all parties and at the start of the bargaining process. The performance of the four selection rules is evaluated using the results of the 2010 Dutch Parliamentary elections. The impossibility theorem by Kenneth Arrow (Nobel memorial prize in economics 1972) finds a crucially different interpretation.

Keywords: Political economy; public choice; political science; optimal representation; electoral systems; elections; coalition; impossibility theorem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 C88 D71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-06-11, Revised 2010-05-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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