Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively? Evidence from Germany

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Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively? Evidence from Germany. / Ganghof, Steffen; Eppner, Sebastian; Stecker, Christian et al.

In: German Politics, Vol. 28, No. 4, 02.10.2019, p. 541-561.

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Ganghof S, Eppner S, Stecker C, Heeß K, Schukraft S. Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively? Evidence from Germany. German Politics. 2019 Oct 2;28(4):541-561. Epub 2019 Jul 4. doi: 10.1080/09644008.2019.1635120

Bibtex

@article{457923b0c2d2415588ec33cbee661e9f,
title = "Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively?: Evidence from Germany",
abstract = "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{\textquoteright}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.",
keywords = "Politics",
author = "Steffen Ganghof and Sebastian Eppner and Christian Stecker and Katja Hee{\ss} and Stefan Schukraft",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, {\textcopyright} 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",
year = "2019",
month = oct,
day = "2",
doi = "10.1080/09644008.2019.1635120",
language = "English",
volume = "28",
pages = "541--561",
journal = "German Politics",
issn = "0964-4008",
publisher = "Frank Cass Publishers",
number = "4",

}

RIS

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 -

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