The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, to present an approach and a solution for analyzing the stability of coalition structures: We define a coalitional system (a set and a binary relation on that set) that explains the transitions between coalition structures and we propose to solve these systems using the absorbing sets solution for abstract systems. Second, to perform an analysis of this approach to evidence its utility in determining the stable coalition structures for some socioeconomic problems. We find that the absorbing sets solution efficiently solves this class of coalitional systems.

Financial support from University of the Basque Country projects: UPV-036.321-HA116/98, UPV-036.321-HA042/99, UPV-00031.321-HA7903/2000, Basque Government project: GV PI-1998-68 and Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Government of Spain) project: BEC2000-0875 is gratefully acknowledged.