Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively? Evidence from Germany
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: German Politics, Jahrgang 28, Nr. 4, 02.10.2019, S. 541-561.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively?
T2 - Evidence from Germany
AU - Ganghof, Steffen
AU - Eppner, Sebastian
AU - Stecker, Christian
AU - Heeß, Katja
AU - Schukraft, Stefan
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2019/10/2
Y1 - 2019/10/2
N2 - A widespread view in political science is that minority cabinets govern more flexibly and inclusively, more in line with a median-oriented and 'consensual' vision of democracy. Yet there is only little empirical evidence for it. We study legislative coalition-building in the German state of North-Rhine-Westphalia, which was ruled by a minority government between 2010 and 2012. We compare the inclusiveness of legislative coalitions under minority and majority cabinets, based on 1028 laws passed in the 1985–2017 period, and analyze in detail the flexibility of legislative coalition formation under the minority government. Both quantitative analyses are complemented with brief case studies of specific legislation. We find, first, that the minority cabinet did not rule more inclusively. Second, the minority cabinet’s legislative flexibility was fairly limited; to the extent that it existed, it follows a pattern that cannot be explained on the basis of the standard spatial model with policy-seeking parties.
AB - A widespread view in political science is that minority cabinets govern more flexibly and inclusively, more in line with a median-oriented and 'consensual' vision of democracy. Yet there is only little empirical evidence for it. We study legislative coalition-building in the German state of North-Rhine-Westphalia, which was ruled by a minority government between 2010 and 2012. We compare the inclusiveness of legislative coalitions under minority and majority cabinets, based on 1028 laws passed in the 1985–2017 period, and analyze in detail the flexibility of legislative coalition formation under the minority government. Both quantitative analyses are complemented with brief case studies of specific legislation. We find, first, that the minority cabinet did not rule more inclusively. Second, the minority cabinet’s legislative flexibility was fairly limited; to the extent that it existed, it follows a pattern that cannot be explained on the basis of the standard spatial model with policy-seeking parties.
KW - Politics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068590466&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09644008.2019.1635120
DO - 10.1080/09644008.2019.1635120
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 28
SP - 541
EP - 561
JO - German Politics
JF - German Politics
SN - 0964-4008
IS - 4
ER -