POLSC 135 1st Edition Lecture 34 Outline of Last Lecture Different Types of Government Outline of Current Lecture Different Types of Government Cont Current Lecture I Why Minority Governments Corporatism encourages minority governments by forcing all governments to work II with labor business and agricultural groups Thus these groups do not actually have to be represented in the government to influence policy Single Party Majority This is the government formed by a single political party because the party has a majority in the government This party also dominates the legislature Ex The UK 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 Surplus majority governments may be common in times of crisis Governments of national unity immediately after WWII Surplus majority governments may be required to change the constitution Constitutional amendments may require more than 50 percent of the legislative III necessary in these circumstances Duration of governments formation and survival On average it takes about 29 9 days for a government to form in Western Europe It took 540 days to form a government following the Belgian elections in 2010 Governments can end for two types of reasons Technical reasons Things beyond the control of the government such as IV support These coalitions may look oversized but they are no larger than legally constitutionally mandated election or the death of the PM Discretionary reasons Political acts on the part of the government or the opposition such as a vote of no confidence calling early elections and the like Endogenous Election Timing In some countries the time at which the elections occur is fixed exogenous In other countries the government gets to choose when an election occurs endogenous Political Surfing The government waits until the economic conditions are right before calling an election The government does not actively manipulate the economy but waits until the economy for whatever reason is at a high point before announcing the election Political business cycle The government actively manipulates the economy to engineer a short term End Lecture economic high then calls an election The election is then followed by an economic decline
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