TY  - GEN
A1  - Ganghof, Steffen
A1  - Eppner, Sebastian
A1  - Stecker, Christian
A1  - Heeß, Katja
A1  - Schukraft, Stefan
T1  - Do minority cabinets govern more flexibly and inclusively?
BT  - evidence from Germany
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe
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.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe - 114 
KW  - Australian bicameralism
KW  - pledge fulfillment
KW  - majority formation
KW  - veto players
KW  - patterns
KW  - coalitions
KW  - consensus
KW  - democracy
KW  - parties
KW  - policy
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434175
SN  - 1867-5808
IS  - 114
SP  - 541
EP  - 561
ER  -