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Termination of Danish Government Coalitions: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects
Author(s) -
Damgaard Erik
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1994.tb00144.x
Subject(s) - danish , government (linguistics) , public administration , political science , empirical research , law and economics , political economy , economics , epistemology , philosophy , linguistics
“Termination of government coalitions” is an ambiguous notion. While the concepts of “termination” and “coalition” do not present insurmountable problems. the concept of “governments” is indeed very tricky. Empirical findings on termination of governments are highly dependent upon the definition of government, as shown by a Danish case study of 1945‐93. A government is defined on the basis of party composition. It is found that Danish majority coalitions terminate because they lose the first upcoming election. whereas minority coalitions terminate for party strategic reasons. notably decisions made by the pivotal Radical Liberal Party.