Why Minority Governments Work: Multilevel Territorial Politics in Spain

ISBN-13: 9781137559791 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 261 str.

Dr Bonnie N. Field

Opis

Why Minority Governments Work tackles central questions: how well minority parliamentary governments govern; how they build majorities; and why some perform better than others. It offers an explanatory framework to account for governing capacity that includes the design of political institutions, partisan bargaining circumstances, and the reconcilability of party goals, all in multilevel, territorial perspective.Demonstrating the framework's utility, the book examines Spain's minority governments in comparative perspective. Spain's minority governments work in part because of its complex territorial politics. In multilevel perspective, political institutions and partisan bargaining circumstances tend to strengthen the government's bargaining position. Moreover, the goals of Spain's statewide governing regional parties are often reconcilable, fostering cooperation.

Recenzje

"The author makes a very significant documentation effort through personal interviews with the politicians of each period. ... this book clearly advances our understanding of how well minority parliamentary governments can govern, how they build parliamentary majorities and, most importantly, why some perform better than others. ... This is an important book for those interested in minority governments and coalition politics, and for readers keen on Spanish politics in particular." (Sergi Ferrer, International Journal of Iberian Studies, Vol. 31 (2), 2018)

Spis treści

1 Introduction
Part I The Theoretical and Contextual Terrain
2 How Well Minority Parliamentary Governments Govern
3 Accounting for Governing Capacity
4 Multilevel, Multidimensional Politics in Spain
Part II Why Spain's Minority Governments Work
5 Governing Capacity and Partisan Bargaining Circumstances
6 How Minority Governments Govern
7 National Parliamentary Institutions and Government Strength
8 The Reconcilability of Party Goals in the Multilevel State
9 Office for Policy in the National Arena or Peix al cove
10 Multilevel Exchange of Office or Pactos de estado
11 Party Competition in the Regional Arena and National-Level Alliances
Part III Conclusions
12 Minority Government Performance and Comparative Lessons

O autorze

Bonnie N. Field (PhD Political Science) is Associate Professor in the Global Studies Department at Bentley University, USA. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, USA, Visiting Researcher at the University of Barcelona, Spain, Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, USA, and Fulbright Senior Researcher in Spain. Her publications focus on political parties and institutions in Europe and Latin America.