Stability of minority governments and the role of support agreements

Krauss, Svenja; Thürk, Maria

doi:10.1080/01402382.2021.1890455

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Written agreements are certainly not a central element of how Danish voters evaluate party performance. Written agreements are new in Denmark, but they are a growing phenomenon across parliamentary systems (Krauss and Thürk, 2021) and even in places with an established tradition do the support agreements become longer, more specific and more comprehensive (Bale and Bergman, 2006). I encourage a comparative study to examine the responsibility attribution and electoral performance of support parties.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, when they involve a written and public support agreement, something Bale and Bergman (2006) refer to as contract parliamentarism , can the minority government appear and function as if it controlled a parliamentary majority. For instance, unlike substantive minority governments, formal minority governments are not different from majority governments in terms of their stability and duration (Krauss and Thürk, 2021).…”

Section: Pseudo-opposition and Quasi-majoritiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Between cabinet membership and opposition: Commitment and responsibility of support parties

Hjermitslev

2022

Party Politics

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Existing research suggests that government participation is crucial for how voters evaluate party performance and how they cast their votes. However, in real life the distinction between government and opposition is not as straight-forward as one would think. Minority governments often enjoy the legislative support of external support parties, which play an ambiguous role in politics: while they are formally part of the opposition, they are simultaneously committed to keeping the government in office and passing its bills. How do voters evaluate parties that support a minority government? Will they respond to different frames about the significance of the commitment that support parties have made to government policy and survival? In a survey experiment, I test whether framing a written agreement as effective will cause voters to attribute more or less responsibility to the support parties and find that they respond to different frames by altering their perceptions of the importance of the agreement, but not their responsibility attribution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pseudo-opposition and Quasi-majoritiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between cabinet membership and opposition: Commitment and responsibility of support parties

Hjermitslev

2022

Party Politics

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“…Such a support agreement ‘is negotiated prior to the formation of the government, and … takes the form of an explicit, comprehensive, and more than short-term commitment to the policies as well as the survival of the government’ (Strøm 1984: 204). Support parties are thus often essential for the minority government's stability (Christiansen and Pedersen 2014; Krauss and Thürk 2021; Thürk 2021). However, there is a trade-off for minority government support: the support party receives pay-offs in the form of policy concessions – and sometimes even has personnel participating in the administration – and in turn officially commits to support the minority government (Anghel and Thürk 2021; Bale and Dann 2002; Christiansen and Damgaard 2008; Christiansen and Seeberg 2016).…”

Section: Theoretical Assumptions On Opposition Party Behaviour Under ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Support Party Strategies on Important Policy Issues: Results from Swedish Minority Governments

Müller

2022

Gov. & oppos.

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The survival of minority governments depends on support from non-cabinet parties that strive to safeguard government stability while also fulfilling their accountability to the electorate. This article argues that non-cabinet parties' propensity to support the government depends on their desire to uphold distinctiveness when accountability is at stake. This even applies to opposition parties that are officially committed to minority government support and, as a trade-off, receive policy pay-offs. By analysing opposition party voting in 23 years of Swedish minority governments (1991–2018), the article suggests that ideologically distant support parties are more likely to oppose the government on their core issues since compromise would involve too-large concessions. These results question our understanding of support party pay-offs as a trade-off for minority government support and highlight the rationality of entering a support agreement, which gives the support party a certain degree of policy influence while also keeping a distinct party profile.

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“…The first is whether the government holds a majority of seats in parliament. At least in Europe, a substantial portion of governments are minority ones, sometimes with the support of some opposition parties (Bassi, 2017; Krauss and Thürk, 2021). Minority governments are usually seen as less desirable than majority governments for two reasons.…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Kind of Electoral Outcome do People Think is Good for Democracy?

et al. 2021

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There is perennial debate in comparative politics about electoral institutions, but what characterizes this debate is the lack of consideration for citizens’ perspective. In this paper, we report the results of an original survey conducted on representative samples in 15 West European countries ( N = 15,414). We implemented an original instrument to elicit respondents’ views by asking them to rate “real but blind” electoral outcomes. With this survey instrument, we aimed to elicit principled rather than partisan preferences regarding the kind of electoral outcomes that citizens think is good for democracy. We find that West Europeans do not clearly endorse a majoritarian or proportional vision of democracy. They tend to focus on aspects of the government rather than parliament when they pass a judgment. They want a majority government that has few parties and enjoys wide popular support. Finally, we find only small differences between citizens of different countries.

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Stability of minority governments and the role of support agreements

Cited by 17 publications

References 57 publications

Between cabinet membership and opposition: Commitment and responsibility of support parties

Between cabinet membership and opposition: Commitment and responsibility of support parties

Support Party Strategies on Important Policy Issues: Results from Swedish Minority Governments

What Kind of Electoral Outcome do People Think is Good for Democracy?

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