Parliaments and Government Formation

• Part I: Introduction


• 1: Bjørn Erik Rasch, Shane Martin, and José Antonio Cheibub: Investiture Rules and Government Formation


• Part II: Varieties of Investiture Rules


• 2: Alexandra Kelso: Parliament and Government Formation in the United Kingdom: A Hidden Vote of Investiture?


• 3: Audrey André, Sam Depauw, and Kris Deschouwer: Changing Investiture Rules in Belgium


• 4: Steffen Ganghof and Christian Stecker: Investiture Rules in Germany: Stacking the Deck against Minority Governments


• 5: Péter Horváth: A Rule for All Seasons? Investiture and Government Formation in Hungary


• 6: Fabio Sozzi: The Increasing Role of the European Parliament in Appointing the European Commission


• Part III: Investiture Rules and Minority Governments


• 7: Shane Martin: Government Formation in Ireland: Learning to Live Without a Majority Party


• 8: Federico Russo: Government Formation in Italy: The Challenge of Bicameral Investiture


• 9: Natalia Ajenjo: Why Minority Governments in Spain? How the Party System Undermines Investiture Rules


• 10: Radoslaw Zubek: Investiture Rules and Minority Governments in Poland


• 11: Robert Zbíral: Changing Investiture Rules in the Czech Republic


• 12: Cristina Chiva: Strong Investiture Rules and Minority Governments in Romania


• 13: Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Jorge M. Fernandes: Parliamentary Investiture Rules in Portugal's Semi-Presidential Democracy


• 14: Helena Wockelberg: Weak Investiture Rules and the Emergence of Minority Governments in Sweden


• Part IV: Beyond Investiture Rules: Legislative Norms and Government Formation


• 15: André Krouwel and Jelle Koedam: Parliamentary Parties in the Netherlands: Informal Investiture behind Closed Doors

Bjørn Erik Rasch is Professor of Political Science and Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo. His research is currently focused on legislative organization, parliamentarism, and constitutional amendment procedures. Rasch has written or edited eleven books, of which The Role of Governments in Legislative Agenda Setting (co-edited with George Tsebelis, 2011) is the latest one. He has published numerous articles in books and journals such as Public Choice , Legislative Studies Quarterly, Journal of Legislative Studies, and European Journal of Political Economy. Rasch was member of a Constitutional Commission appointed by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003 to review and modernize the Court of Impeachment and a committee who designed a new electoral system for the Sami Parliament in Northern Norway. Rasch is a member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Shane Martin is Reader in Comparative Politics at the University of Leicester. His research focuses on how electoral incentives shape representatives' preferences, the internal structures of legislatures, and executive oversight. Recent research by Martin has appeared in the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Legislative Studies, Political Studies, West European Politics, and Irish Political Studies. He is co-editor (with Kaare Strøm and Thomas Saalfeld) of The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies (2014). He was founding Co-Convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments and was founding Co-Director of the European Summer School on Parliaments.

José Antonio Cheibub is Boeschenstein Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also Faculty Associate at the Cline Center for Democracy at the University of Illinois. His research and teaching interests are in democratization, the emergence and effects of