ABSTRACT
This chapter advances understanding of party competition in multilevel federal systems, and the strategic choices that state-based parties make when timing their entry and exit from federal coalitions. The chapter argues that parties in federal coalitions tend to have varied territorial interests and attach different weights to different levels of government. Further, they tend to make strategic choices based on electoral calendars, especially where electoral calendars of different levels of government are not the same. The phrase ‘revolving-door partners’ is thus used to signify that coalition partners not only disagree with coalition policies, but may also shift positions or withdraw from coalitions prior to the end of their term of office. The chapter makes two main contributions: first it adds empirical knowledge in the context of the Indian Federal polity, and second it advances a typology of coalition shifts that has potential for cross-national comparisons.
