Fractionalization and reform: a framework of political collaboration with application to Lebanon

Abstract

How does fractionalization affect political collaboration on reform? We develop a theory to explain observable variation in legislative output over time and policy areas. We show how the properties of a reform project determine the extent to which fractionalization affects political collaboration on reform. We apply our framework to the case of Lebanon and present mixed-methods evidence based on a novel comprehensive dataset of legislative activity and 32 interviews with parliamentarians, ex-ministers, and other high ranking officials. Our findings contribute to explaining ambiguous evidence in the literature on the political economy of reform.