Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection
Government formation is guided by several principles, such as majority, plurality and electoral principles. According to the electoral principle, parties that increase their share of seats in the elections should form the government, parties that lose seats joining the opposition. We analyse the ful...
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crwiley:10.1111/1467-9477.00071 2024-06-02T08:09:05+00:00 Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection Mattila, Mikko Raunio, Tapio 2002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.00071 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1467-9477.00071 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9477.00071 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Scandinavian Political Studies volume 25, issue 3, page 259-280 ISSN 0080-6757 1467-9477 journal-article 2002 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.00071 2024-05-03T12:00:30Z Government formation is guided by several principles, such as majority, plurality and electoral principles. According to the electoral principle, parties that increase their share of seats in the elections should form the government, parties that lose seats joining the opposition. We analyse the fulfilment of this principle in the five Nordic countries. In Denmark, Finland and Iceland the majority of governments contained parties that both won and lost in elections, whereas in Sweden nearly half of the governments included only parties that lost seats. Only in Iceland and Denmark does election success translate to an increased probability of a government place in an increasing way. In Norway and particularly in Sweden big losers have better chances of being in government than big winners. Party system attributes are not related to the fulfilment of the electoral principle. To shift our analysis to individual parties, prime ministers come more likely from parties that are big winners. Winning does not explain the probability of becoming a coalition partner. If a party wants to be in government it is more important to avoid losing seats than to be an actual winner. Coalition partners are more likely to be mid–sized parties, a finding probably explained by the desire of the formateur party to maximise its policy influence in the government. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Wiley Online Library Norway Scandinavian Political Studies 25 3 259 280 |
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English |
description |
Government formation is guided by several principles, such as majority, plurality and electoral principles. According to the electoral principle, parties that increase their share of seats in the elections should form the government, parties that lose seats joining the opposition. We analyse the fulfilment of this principle in the five Nordic countries. In Denmark, Finland and Iceland the majority of governments contained parties that both won and lost in elections, whereas in Sweden nearly half of the governments included only parties that lost seats. Only in Iceland and Denmark does election success translate to an increased probability of a government place in an increasing way. In Norway and particularly in Sweden big losers have better chances of being in government than big winners. Party system attributes are not related to the fulfilment of the electoral principle. To shift our analysis to individual parties, prime ministers come more likely from parties that are big winners. Winning does not explain the probability of becoming a coalition partner. If a party wants to be in government it is more important to avoid losing seats than to be an actual winner. Coalition partners are more likely to be mid–sized parties, a finding probably explained by the desire of the formateur party to maximise its policy influence in the government. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mattila, Mikko Raunio, Tapio |
spellingShingle |
Mattila, Mikko Raunio, Tapio Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection |
author_facet |
Mattila, Mikko Raunio, Tapio |
author_sort |
Mattila, Mikko |
title |
Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection |
title_short |
Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection |
title_full |
Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection |
title_fullStr |
Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection |
title_full_unstemmed |
Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection |
title_sort |
government formation in the nordic countries: the electoral connection |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2002 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.00071 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1467-9477.00071 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9477.00071 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Scandinavian Political Studies volume 25, issue 3, page 259-280 ISSN 0080-6757 1467-9477 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.00071 |
container_title |
Scandinavian Political Studies |
container_volume |
25 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
259 |
op_container_end_page |
280 |
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1800754699481120768 |