The vote of confidence in parliamentary democracies.

The parliamentary system's confidence vote procedures can give the prime minister significant control over policy outcomes even these procedures are not in reality invoked. With the use of a formal model of the confidence vote procedure, the prime minister's influence on policies cannot be neutralized or offset by the cabinet ministers' authority over specific portfolios or by the members' use of no-confidence motions. However, when the prime minister should invoke confidence vote, attention must be focused on the position-taking incentives of government supporters.

The institutional ...

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