ministerdepends

Ministerdepends, short for ministerial dependencies, is a term used in political science to describe the degree to which a minister's policy initiatives rely on coordination, approval, or support from other ministers or the cabinet. It captures how interdependent policy proposals are within an executive government.

It can be quantified by computing the share of a minister's proposals that require cross-minister coordination, the average time to secure cabinet agreement, and network measures such as degree centrality within the ministerial coordination network. The concept thus combines content analysis of proposals with timing data and inter-ministerial interaction patterns.

In practice, higher ministerdepends signals that policy formulation hinges on multi-ministry bargaining, which is common in coalition governments or in portfolios with overlapping responsibilities, such as health, finance, and education. Researchers use it to compare governance complexity across countries or administrations and to study its relationship with policy outcomes and cabinet stability.

Critics caution that ministerdepends can be difficult to measure precisely, as it depends on issue salience, institutional rules, and the formal vs. informal power of ministers. There is a risk of endogeneity, and some argue that high dependency can reflect prudent checks and balances rather than inefficiency.

Other related concepts include inter-ministerial coordination, policy networks, and cabinet governance. The term remains subject to varying definitions and methodological approaches across studies.