Closed amendment rules concentrate strategic power in the executive

Evidence

With open rules the legislature has a vast latitude in amending policy proposals of the agenda setter (the government); with closed rules the government can prevent amendments to its proposals and, as a result, it has a larger strategic power. One may a priori associate open rules with low insulation (low M) and closed rules with high insulation (high M), since they imply different degrees of strategic power for the executive. — Philippe Aghion, Alberto Alesina, and Francesco Trebbi, Endogenous Political Institutions, 49

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes open versus closed legislative rules and maps them onto low versus high executive insulation.
• XREF: Connects to standard agenda-setter models of legislative bargaining and veto-player theory.