Equal Performance of Minority and Majority Coalitions? Pledge Fulfilment in the German State of NRW

Artikel

This study examines how a government’s majority status affects coalition governance and performance. Two steps are investigated: the inclusion of government parties’ electoral pledges into the coalition agreement, and the ability to translate pledges into legislative outputs. The main results of a comparative analysis of 183 pledges of a minority (without a formal support partner) and majority coalition in the German State North Rhine-Westphalia indicate that government parties with minority status include fewer pledges in the coalition agreement. But this does not mean that they also perform badly at pledge fulfilment. In fact, they show an equivalent performance in fulfilling election pledges, at least partially, when compared to majority government parties. However, there is tentative evidence that the prime minister’s party shows a lower quality of pledge fulfilment, as measured by a higher share of partially enacted pledges.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: German Politics ; ISSN: 1743-8993 ; Volume: 28 ; Year: 2019 ; Issue: 1 ; Pages: 123-144 ; London: Routledge

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Matthieß, Theres
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Routledge
• (where): London
• (when): 2019

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1080/09644008.2018.1528235
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/183218
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET