ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three main research agendas that have dominated the study of presidential government formation: the study of coalitional presidentialism, research on minister turnover, and work on minister recruitment. It proposes an analytical framework that seeks to address each of these broad research agendas. This framework is premised on the idea that portfolio allocation is a central tool that presidents use to manage their political support, to recruit ministers with the necessary technical skills to govern effectively, and to deal with internal alignments. Some of the first and most developed studies of portfolio allocation in the Americas sought to explain a rather counter-intuitive phenomenon. Portfolio allocation refers to the hiring, firing, and replacement of ministers and may take place at three levels—personnel, partisan, and presidential administration. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.
