Overview

Coalition government is the most frequent form of government in Western Europe, but we have relatively little systematic knowledge about how that form of government has developed in recent decades. This book studies such governments, covering the full life-cycle of coalitions from the formation of party alliances before elections to coalition formation after elections (or in the sitting parliament), portfolio distribution among the coalition parties, governing and policy-making when parties work together in office, and the stages that eventually lead to government termination. A particular emphasis is on the study of how coalitions govern together even when they have different agendas. Do individual ministers decide, or the Prime minister or is the outcome a result of a process of coalition compromise? The volume covers 16 West European countries and introduces the case of Croatia, focusing mainly on governments formed during the past two decades.Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu.The series is edited by Susan Scarrow, Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Houston, and Jonathan Slapin, Professor of Political Institutions and European Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.

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9780198868484

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Torbjörn Bergman is Professor of Political Science at Umeå University, Sweden. He has previously held Research Chair positions at the Luleå University of Technology and Södertörn University Stockholm. He has also been a Visiting Researcher at the University of California (1999-2000) and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2006-2007). Hanna Bäck is Professor of Political Science at Lund University. Her research focuses on political behaviour, political parties and parliamentary government. She has previously held positions at the European University Institute and University of Mannheim. She has published extensively in international journals and has been awarded the Rudolf Wildenmann Prize for best paper presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions, and the Vincent Wright Memorial Prize for best article in West European Politics. Johan Hellström is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Umeå University. He has published widely on comparative European politics and coalition politics and his research focuses primarily on political parties and governments in European parliamentary democracies, parlicularly examining government formation, government stability, political institutions, and party behaviour. He has published in journals such as the European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Political Science Research and Methods, and Government and Opposition.

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