Coalition Dynamics: Advances in the Study of the Coalition Life Cycle
- Author(s)
- Wolfgang C. Müller, Hanna Bäck, Johan Hellström
- Abstract
In parliamentary democracies, elections distribute the seats in parliament, but who gets into government and determines the policy agenda over the course of the legislative term is decided upon after the elections, in negotiations between the political parties. This introduction to the special issue discusses research concerning dynamic approaches to coalition governments. A dynamic approach implies that what happens at the electoral stage influences the government formation stage, which in turn shapes what happens during the government’s tenure, which may influence the cabinet’s durability. Hence, this type of research tries to analyse various stages of a government’s ‘life cycle’ from its ‘birth’ to its ‘death’ as interdependent processes, rather than examining them in mutual isolation. These processes may be restricted to the confines of a self-contained universe of politicians and political parties, or they may involve ‘external’ events, such as, for example, elections, or the state of the economy. In addition to having a dynamic approach to analysing coalitions, the contributions in the special issue use brand-new comparative data from several independent research projects investigating various aspects of coalition politics.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- External organisation(s)
- Lund University, Umeå University
- Journal
- West European Politics
- Volume
- 47
- Pages
- 1-30
- No. of pages
- 30
- ISSN
- 0140-2382
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2023.2249316
- Publication date
- 08-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506014 Comparative politics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/4c7bec40-5947-4c1f-90be-fa27510472c0