When the Compromise Engine Sputters: Outcomes of Conference Committee Negotiations

Abstract

The German conference committee (Vermittlungsausschuss) is considered a highly efficient consensus-seeking institution. The committee's success is often attributed to the fact that party competition is irrelevant in committee negotiations. I question this view. Building on a simple spatial model, I posit that the committee's partisan makeup affects conference outcomes. The committee does not always propose to modify the original bill. Sometimes it confirms the original bill. Sometimes it suggests the bill's abolition. In yet other cases the committee fails to produce any proposal at all. From my model I deduce several hypotheses pertaining to the occurrence of these results. I test these hypotheses using a novel dataset. The findings support the hypotheses and show that partisan majority constellations matter in conference negotiations.