Coalitional Behaviour in Theory and Practice: An Inductive Model for Western Europe

This book, first published in 1986, takes a fresh look at coalition theory in the light of the European coalition experience. This volume attempts to marry theory and practice by avoiding the pure abstraction of the formal coalition theories on the one hand and the over-descriptiveness of some of the empirical work on the other. This volume of theoretical or comparative chapters and national case-studies presents and applies an inductive model for coalitional behaviour in the form of a multi-dimensional framework based on the hypothesis of political parties as the central actors in coalition politics. In doing so, it aims at encouraging a fresh direction in coalition research by focusing on coalitional behaviour as a continuous and dynamic process rather than one confined to the formation of coalitions, as well as by overcoming the isolation of coalition studies.

Until recently, coalition politics has been a somewhat neglected area in political science - surprisingly so for Western Europe, where governments have tended as a rule to be coalitions. This book takes a fresh look at coalition theory in the light of the European coalition experience. Too often in the past, there has been a separation between abstract theory and empirical work on the subject; and, in particular, there has been little effort to relate work on coalitional behaviour to the study of party systems in Western Europe. This volume of theoretical or comparative chapters and national case-studies presents and applies an inductive model for coalitional behaviour in the form of a multi-dimensional framework based on the hypothesis of political parties as the central actors in coalition politics. In doing so, it aims at encouraging a new direction in coalition research by focusing on coalitional behaviour as a continuous and dynamic process rather than one confined to the formation of coalitions, as well as by overcoming the isolation of coalition studies.