Running Together, Ruling Together: How Social Capital from Voluntary Associations affects Coalition Formation
Abstract
The research on social capital attained in voluntary associations has resulted in many studies linking social capital and political participation. However, many facets of political participation are partisan in nature and therefore may imply only mobilization of a clique.
On the other hand, according to the social network theory cross-cutting ties between voluntary associations and political parties should facilitate cooperation between different parties. Therefore, in this paper, I investigate coalition formation in the Czech municipalities.
Using the data from the 2014 and 2018 municipal elections in the Czech Republic and the membership data of the Football Association of the Czech Republic, the conditional logit models show that a coalition is more likely to be formed by parties if they include an elected deputy who is a member of a local football club.