Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: Strom, Laver, Warwick, Richter, Franklin and Mackie, among others, have analyzed the complicated, and sometimes arcane, procedures for coalition formation in developed democracies. In multiparty democracies, various "families" of parties seem most likely to form governments; whether a leftist, centrist, or right wing coalition, some coalitions seem more intuitive than others. And some coalitions that one would expect to see never materialize. Why? Since the mid-1990s, Sweden has been governed by a minority Social Democratic Party (SAP, the Swedish acronym) government which has included support from the Greens and the former Communist Left Party. Yet a similar left wing coalition/alliance was rejected out of hand after the September 2005 election in Germany, not only by the parties of the right (as would be expected) but also by all of the parties of the left (SPD, Greens AND the new Left Party). The paper will compare these two cases to investigate whether we can find any generalizable properties that enable or discourage the formation of left wing coalitions in developed democracies.