Parliamentary Opposition under Minority Parliamentarism: Scandinavia

Coping With Corporatism in Decline and the Revival of Parliament

“…When Gro Harlem Brundtland resigned as prime minister and was followed by party fellow Thorbjørn Jagland in 1996-1997, the government lost an all-time high of 19.6 votes per active month in parliament. In a recent article on the relationship between government and opposition in Scandinavian parliaments, F. Christiansen and Damgaard (2008) even talk about increasing integration of some opposition parties in government. In 2001-2005, Norway was governed by a coalition government formed by the Christian Peoples' Party, the Conservatives, and the Liberals.…”

Parties' Influence during Government Policy Negotiations: Parliamentary Dynamics and Spatial Advantages in the First Italian Republic

“…In particular, our results could be helpful to better understand the bargaining dynamics within political systems characterised by a consensual style of law-making similar to the one that prevailed during the First Italian Republic. This is a far from exceptional scenario among contemporary parliamentary democracies (see Andeweg, De Winter, & Müller, 2008;Christiansen & Damgaard, 2008;Kaiser 2008, Mújica & Sánchez-Cuenca, 2006, and may have a bearing on research dealing with actual (rather than declared) policy outputs (Bräuninger & Debus, 2009;Cusack, 2001;Martin & Vanberg, 2005).…”

Introduction: Conflict and Consensus in Parliament during the Economic Crisis

“…In sum, consensus in parliament is the result of the balance between a tendency towards conflict and another towards cooperation. As a rule, the latter prevails: at national level, an extremely high level of consensus in the lawmaking process has been found in almost all the European parliamentary democracies (Andeweg, De Winter, & Müller, 2008;Christiansen & Damgaard, 2008;Cowley & Stuart, 2005;Giuliani, 2008;Kaiser, 2008;M|újica & Sánchez-Cuenca, 2006). This is true to such an extent that parties generally are 'in opposition, in the sense of being out of government, but not necessarily in disagreement on a continuing basis with government' (Norton, 2008, p. 241).…”