Coalition formation, policy compromises and blame sharing: the strategic use of appeals for responsibility in Italian investiture debates

This paper sheds light on parties’ appeals for responsibility and ‘social harmony’ (namely references to national solidarity, public spiritedness, support for the public interest or condemnations of anti-social attitudes in times of crisis) within parliamentary speeches during investiture debates. Using a longitudinal dataset of Italian investiture debates from 1946 to 2022, we investigate the relationship between incumbent parties’ propensity to appeal for responsibility, the size and polarisation of the ruling coalition, and the attitude of the opposition. We find evidence that parties in government make more appeals for responsibility particularly as cabinet polarisation increases and as a reaction to opposition critiques. These results underscore the strategic nature of appeals for responsibility and have implications for the literature on political representation.