CPO-2002 Lecture 53: Lecture 53
Document Summary
Mi(cid:374)ority go(cid:448)er(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts should (cid:271)e (cid:373)ore likely (cid:449)he(cid:374) there is a (cid:862)stro(cid:374)g(cid:863) party (la(cid:448)er a(cid:374)d. The idea is that a minority government can survive in power if opposition parties cannot reach an agreement on who to replace it with. Relatively large parties that are in the middle of the policy space and have opposition parties on either side of them are often able to form a minority government. These large (cid:272)e(cid:374)trist parties are referred to as (cid:862)stro(cid:374)g(cid:863) parties. Minority governments seem to be more likely when: the opposition is strong, when interest group relations are corporatist, minority governments seem to be less likely when, there is an investiture vote. A surplus majority government is one in which the cabinet includes more parties than are strictly necessary to control a legislative majority. Surplus majority governments form roughly 20 percent of the time in west european parliamentary democracies.
