From delegation to defiance: Voter support for party differentiation in coalition governments

Coalition parties often pursue partisan policy to avoid being perceived as overly compromising. Yet, little is known about how voters respond to such partisan differentiation under coalition government. This paper leverages a prominent yet unexpected instance of partisan policymaking in Austria to provide causal evidence on how voters react when a minister acts against their coalition partner. The findings show that while voters appreciate clear partisan signals, the electoral benefits are limited: support increased only among ideologically aligned voters and faded within days. Support for other parties remained unaffected, but declined gradually for the coalition partner of the perpetrating party in the aftermath of the event. Ultimately, the event produced no clear winners. This has direct implications for the trade-offs involved in coalition politics and for our understanding of voter attitudes in parliamentary democracies more broadly.