@article{2015:horst:das_manage,
title = {Das Management der dritten Großen Koalition in Deutschland 2013 bis 2015: unangefochtene Dominanz der drei Parteivorsitzenden},
year = {2015},
note = {In fundamental aspects the management of the third Grand Coalition
does not differ from the conflict handling in other coalitions. The
importance of coalition agreements as an instrument of conflict
reduction has grown, although it tends to decrease over time.
Coalition bargaining follows the same pattern as ever but it takes
longer. In 2013, it took almost three months due to the fact that the
Social Democrats made use of an intraparty membership vote on the
coalition treaty for the first time in history. The third Grand
Coalition respected basic cooperative norms of coalition management as
well. Specific characteristics in the management of grand coalitions
result from the fact that the two main competitors of the party system
work together. This leads to a heightened conflict intensity, which
demands special efforts of explaining the day-to-day decision-making.
In the practice of the third Grand Coalition this has lead to a
centralization of the decision-making processes. Whereas the coalition
committee is of subordinate significance as an instrument of conflict
resolution, the coalition summits of the three party chairs are
dominating the internal decision- making processes. Finally, grand
coalitions work with the precognition that they will last only until
the end of the election period. [ZParl, vol. 46 (2015), no. 4, pp. 852
– 873]},
journal = {ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen},
pages = {852--873},
author = {Horst, Patrick},
volume = {46},
number = {4}
}