Minority government

In parliamentary systems , one speaks of a minority government when the factions that run the government do not have their own majority in parliament .

To elect the government, which is sometimes not absolutely necessary (compare managing government , constructive vote of no confidence ), but in any case to pass laws , majorities must therefore be sought together with other parliamentary groups (or individual members of parliament ). The regular support of the minority government by fractions - as opposed to the model of a coalition - are not themselves involved in her will, as tolerance or acquiescence called the government by these fractions. Such tolerance is usually agreed with the tolerant parliamentary groups in advance of the formation of a government in order to ensure a certain stability.

For the tolerant factions, this results in an intermediate status between the government and opposition factions . Even if they are not personally involved in the government, it is still compelled to discuss political projects with them in order to secure the approval of a majority in parliament. If the tolerant parliamentary groups withdraw their support from the government, this can mean political incapacity for the minority government or, in some systems, overthrow (e.g. through a vote of no confidence ). Through this relationship of dependency, the tolerant parliamentary groups gain a not inconsiderable influence on government policy.

Various studies show that in parliamentary democracies around a third of the governments are minority governments. While minority governments are rare in Central Europe, they are not uncommon in Scandinavia as well as Canada . In Westminster systems there are often minority governments that rely on confidence and supply . The government-tolerant MPs only support the executive in confidence and budget votes, but explicitly reserve the right to vote differently from the government on other bills.

A situation similar to that of a minority government can arise if the government and parliament are elected independently of one another. In France it is called cohabitation when the president belongs to a different party than the head of government. In the United States , divided government refers to a situation in which the president's party does not have a majority in Congress.

Minority Governments in Practice

Australia

In the general election in Australia in 2010 , the Labor Party lost its absolute majority. With the support of three independent MPs and one Green MP, she was able to stay in power until the next election in 2013, after which she went into opposition.

Denmark

Denmark is considered to be the country with the most minority governments. 32 governments have been formed since the end of World War II in 1945 . Only four had their own parliamentary majority. 28 were only supported by a minority and were dependent on the support of one or more opposition parties. This situation is favored by the Danish constitution , which only requires that the government not act against the apparent will of the parliamentary majority. Second, voter behavior prevents absolute majorities for a party, just as proportional representation transfers the votes precisely to the distribution of seats without favoring certain parties. In the 1970s, the fragmentation of the party landscape made clear majorities difficult. From 2001 to 2011, bourgeois-right majorities did not result in majority governments because the right-wing populists were not considered ministerial. Danish minority governments generally had predictable supporters among the other parliamentary groups.

Germany

The few deliberately entered minority governments since 1945 existed exclusively at the state level and were usually short-lived. They were mostly the result of either a break in a coalition or the failure to form a new government after an election. Minority governments were an exception. A stable coalition government or one party government could almost always be formed. Only since the 1970s have there been repeated minority governments that have been in office for more than a few months, but so far never at the federal level. Because of the CDU / CSU election result of 41.5% on September 22, 2013, a minority government was discussed as Merkel's alternative in various media, as this share of the vote meant that the CDU / CSU only narrowly missed the mandate majority with 311 of 630 seats in the Bundestag .

Federal level

Three times a federal government did not have an absolute majority in the Bundestag for a short period of time. In two of these cases, the end of a coalition was the reason: this was the case for the first time from October 28 to December 1, 1966, after the FDP ministers had resigned and only the Union was represented in Ludwig Erhard's cabinet . On December 1st, this government was replaced by a grand coalition . After the resignation of the FDP ministers in Helmut Schmidt's cabinet on September 17, 1982, the government consisted only of SPD members. With the election of Helmut Kohl as Federal Chancellor on October 1 through a constructive vote of no confidence , this brief SPD minority government was replaced by a coalition of the Union and FDP.

The first social-liberal government finally lost its absolute majority in the Bundestag on May 17, 1972 when Günther Müller was excluded from the SPD parliamentary group. In fact, the government no longer had a majority in the weeks before. After Chancellor Willy Brandt had put the vote of confidence and, as expected, lost the vote, Federal President Gustav Heinemann dissolved the Bundestag on September 22nd. The 1972 federal election resulted in a clear majority for the SPD / FDP coalition.

Berlin

In Berlin , Richard von Weizsäcker formed a CDU after the parliamentary elections of 1981 , in which the previous social-liberal coalition under the governing mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel missed a majority, but the CDU also did not receive a majority due to the good performance of the alternative list. minority Senate, which to some members of the FDP - faction supported. This government model lasted until 1983, when the FDP officially entered government.

After the breakup of the Red-Green coalition formed in 1989 , Walter Momper ruled with an SPD minority senate until the House of Representatives election on December 2, 1990 , which was replaced by a grand coalition in January 1991.

2001, announced SPD those previously existing grand coalition under Eberhard Diepgen because of the bank affair to chose, together with the Greens and the PDS Diepgen per -confidence vote , and Klaus Wowereit as the new mayor. Until the Senate election in January 2002, Wowereit ruled with a red-green minority senate tolerated by the PDS.

Brandenburg

In February 1994 the traffic light coalition under Manfred Stolpe broke up over the question of his Stasi contacts during his time as Consistorial President of the Evangelical Church in Brandenburg.

Alliance 90 left the government, so that until the state elections in September 1994 a social-liberal minority government, tolerated by the PDS, was in office, which was replaced by a pure SPD government after the SPD had won an absolute majority .

Hamburg

In the general election on June 6, 1982 , the SPD lost an absolute majority. Otherwise, only the CDU and the Green Alternative List (GAL) were represented in the citizenry . The previous SPD Senate remained in office. According to the Hamburg constitution at that time, the term of office of the Senate was not linked to the electoral term of the citizenship and a new election of the citizenship did not automatically lead to a new election of the Senate. After negotiations to tolerate the Senate by the GAL failed, the citizenship dissolved and the election of December 19, 1982 brought the SPD an absolute majority again. After the subsequent general election on November 9, 1986, the situation from 1982 almost repeated itself. Again the SPD lost the absolute majority in the citizenry, in which only CDU and GAL were represented. Again the SPD and GAL did not come to an agreement and the citizenship dissolved. After the election on May 17, 1987 , an SPD / FDP Senate was formed.

After losing the absolute CDU majority in the Hamburg mayor elections in 2008 , the First Mayor Ole von Beust formed the first black-green coalition at state level with the Green Alternative List (GAL) . After von Beust resigned and Christoph Ahlhaus was elected as his successor on August 25, 2010, the GAL ended the coalition on November 28, 2010. Its senators and state councilors were then dismissed. The Senate Ahlhaus ruled without a majority until the election of the First Mayor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on March 7, 2011 as a result of the general election on February 20, 2011 , which resulted in an absolute SPD majority.

Hesse

In Hesse , the Börner II cabinet remained in office as a minority government after the state elections in Hesse in 1982 . After the draft for a state budget failed in 1983, the state parliament dissolved. In the following state election in Hesse in 1983 , the SPD again failed to achieve a majority. Holger Börner continued to lead a minority government tolerated by the Greens until the first red-green coalition came about in 1985.

After the state elections in Hesse in 2008 , the formation of a red-green minority government under Andrea Ypsilanti (SPD) with the tolerance of the left was considered. A government tolerated by the left would have been a novelty in West Germany and was highly controversial in public and within the SPD. Ypsilanti, who, according to the general West German SPD line, had ruled out any “cooperation” with the left before the election, declared herself not to keep her election promise and was accused of “breaking his word” and “fraudulent voting”. After the SPD MP Dagmar Metzger publicly stated a few weeks after the election that she did not support such a tolerance model and that she did not want to vote for Ypsilanti, the project was initially considered to have failed, but should be attempted again on November 4, 2008.

On November 3, 2008, one day before Ypsilanti's planned election as Prime Minister, another three members of the SPD parliamentary group ( Jürgen Walter , Carmen Everts and Silke Tesch ) announced that they would vote for reasons of conscience in the election planned on November 4, 2008 not wanting to give Ypsilanti to the participation of the Left Party. However, they wanted to continue to belong to the SPD parliamentary group. Without these four MPs, the originally planned government of the SPD and the Greens with tolerance by the left would not have a majority in the state parliament. The planned vote was canceled because of this and the attempt to form a government had failed. The state parliament then dissolved itself, there were new elections on January 18, 2009 , in which the CDU and FDP received a majority.

Lower Saxony

After the CDU left the state government on August 23, 1950, it only belonged to SPD members and one member of the center . These two parties together did not have a majority. The government remained in office until the state elections on May 6, 1951 .

After the resignation of Prime Minister Alfred Kubel (SPD), the SPD and FDP, which together had 78 of the 155 seats, wanted to elect Helmut Kasimier as Prime Minister on January 15, 1976 and continue their coalition. In a secret ballot in the first ballot, he received only 75 votes against 77 for the CDU candidate Ernst Albrecht . In the second ballot on the following day, Kasimier received only 74 votes, while Albrecht received an absolute majority with 78 votes and was elected. However, he was initially unable to take up his post because the constitution stipulates that the state government as a whole must be confirmed by the state parliament, which is not voted on in secret. Since no SPD or FDP MPs admitted to having elected Albrecht, Albrecht could not hope for a majority in an open vote. In the event that the state parliament does not confirm a new government within three weeks of the resignation of the old government, the constitution provides that the state parliament then has to vote on its dissolution and, if the state parliament does not dissolve, another election of the Prime Minister has to take place, where the candidate is elected with the most votes, and in this case the government does not require the approval of the state parliament. Albrecht let the three-week period pass. The state parliament did not dissolve and the Prime Minister was re-elected on February 6th. Albrecht received 79 votes, his new SPD opponent Karl Ravens received 75 votes. Albrecht now formed a CDU minority cabinet. On January 19, 1977, two FDP ministers were accepted into the government, which thus had a majority behind it.

After the state elections in 1986 , the CDU and FDP formed a coalition that only had one seat majority in the state parliament. This majority was lost when the MP Kurt Vajen was expelled from the CDU parliamentary group on September 2, 1989. The state government remained in office until the end of the electoral term in June 1990.

In the 2013 state elections , the SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen received 69 mandates versus 68 mandates for the CDU and FDP, so that Stephan Weil (SPD) became the new Prime Minister.

Due to the change of faction of the previous Green MP Elke Twesten to the CDU on August 4, 2017, Red-Green lost its majority. As a result, the state elections from spring 2018 were brought forward to October 2017 , which the SPD won. After the election, a red-black coalition was formed.

North Rhine-Westphalia

After the state elections on June 18, 1950 , Karl Arnold was re-elected Prime Minister on July 27, without a coalition agreement having been reached by then. On August 1, Arnold appointed a minority cabinet consisting only of CDU ministers. On September 15, 1950, two ministers from the center were accepted into the state government. The CDU and the center had an absolute majority with 109 of the 215 seats.

In the state elections on May 9, 2010 , the governing coalition of the CDU and FDP under Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers , which had been in office since 2005, lost its previous majority and received a total of 80 of the 181 state parliament mandates. SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen missed an absolute majority with 90 seats and eventually formed a minority government under Hannelore Kraft , which was elected Prime Minister on July 14th. When their draft for the Budget Act 2012 did not find a majority in the state parliament on March 14, 2012, the state parliament decided to dissolve it on the same day. The new election brought the SPD and the Greens a clear majority.

Saarland

In the state elections in 1975 , both the CDU on the one hand and the SPD and FDP on the other received 25 mandates each, so that there was a stalemate in the Saarland state parliament . Since the FDP formed a coalition with the SPD at the federal level, it initially refused to enter into a coalition with the CDU. Prime Minister Franz-Josef Röder therefore ruled with a minority government of the CDU until 1977, when the FDP agreed to a CDU-FDP coalition.

After the government coalition was dissolved in January 2012, there was a CDU minority government under Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer , which was replaced by a black-red coalition after the state elections on March 25, 2012.

Saxony-Anhalt

The best-known minority government was Reinhard Höppner in Saxony-Anhalt . In the 1994 state elections , the CDU-FDP coalition under Christoph Bergner missed its previous majority, and it was also not enough for red-green as such. Höppner then formed a red-green minority government supported by the PDS.

After the Greens were no longer represented in the state parliament after the state elections in 1998 , Höppner formed a pure SPD minority government that remained in office until the 2002 election , after which Wolfgang Böhmer (CDU) was able to form a CDU-FDP coalition. Höppner's reign went down in history as the Magdeburg model .

Schleswig-Holstein

In Schleswig-Holstein there were two attempts to form a minority government.

1987

In the state elections on September 13, 1987, the CDU under Uwe Barschel lost an absolute majority and, together with the FDP, achieved 37 of the 74 state parliament mandates. The SPD under Björn Engholm won 36 seats, so the decisive factor was how the MP from the SSW, who was exempt from the five percent threshold, would behave. The talks dragged on and were also overshadowed by the Barschel affair , which ultimately led to new elections on May 8, 1988 , in which the SPD achieved an absolute majority.

2005

In the state elections on February 20, 2005 , the red-green state government under Heide Simonis missed its previous majority and received only 33 of the 69 seats. Since the CDU and FDP only received 34 seats, it was, as in 1987/88, how the two SSW MPs would vote.

After the SPD and the Greens had signed a coalition agreement and a cooperation agreement with the SSW, the so-called Dänenampel was to act as a minority government. However, this minority government failed on March 17, 2005, when Heide Simonis was unable to achieve the required majority in four ballots when she was re-elected as Prime Minister.

From then until 2009 a grand coalition ruled under Peter Harry Carstensen (see also: Election of the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein 2005 ).

Thuringia

After the state election in Thuringia in 2019 , there was no clear majority in the state parliament of Thuringia . It was neither enough for a continuation of the red-red-green government Ramelow nor for a coalition of CDU , SPD , B'90 / Greens and FDP . Then an attempt was made to install a new red-red-green government - this time as a minority government - which, among other things, had already drawn up a coalition agreement . The project failed because on February 5, 2020, in the third ballot, it was not Bodo Ramelow who was elected Prime Minister with a relative majority as planned, but Thomas Kemmerich from the FDP - with the help of the AfD and CDU. This election was followed by the government crisis in Thuringia 2020 , which was ended on March 4, 2020 by the repetition of the prime ministerial election and the election of Bodo Ramelow in the third ballot. As a result, the red-red-green cabinet Ramelow II was formed.

Ireland

Minority governments are common in Ireland. Usually they secure regular support from non-party MPs.

Netherlands

Minority governments were rare in the Netherlands and usually resulted from a break in the coalition as a brief interim solution. For the first time after the parliamentary elections in 2010 , a majority of the right consciously opted for a minority government. After the governing parties and the PVV , which tolerated them, were unable to agree on austerity measures, the government resigned in April 2012.

Norway

In Norway, a minority government is the norm. Since 1971 there have only been governments from 1983 to 1985 and from 2005 to 2013 with an absolute majority in parliament.

Austria

Since 1945, only one Austrian federal government has been a minority government: In the National Council election in March 1970 , the SPÖ received 81, the ÖVP 78 and the FPÖ 6 out of a total of 165 seats.

SPÖ chairman Bruno Kreisky then led the coalition negotiations with the ÖVP, which is said to have actually only been conducted on the surface and Kreisky secretly expected a minority government with the support of the FPÖ. So he knew how to convey credibly to the voters and his own party comrades that the ÖVP was to blame for the failure of the coalition negotiations because it was reluctant to cut military service - which was a central election campaign topic of the SPÖ. As a result, the idea of ​​a minority government met with broader acceptance among the population. Furthermore, Kreisky made a proposal for the composition of the parliamentary committees in which the ÖVP had fewer seats than the SPÖ and thus could not find a majority with the FPÖ. However, the SPÖ and FPÖ had a majority and thereupon accepted this proposal in plenary. Kreisky's request to the FPÖ to go part of the way together .

Although the FPÖ under chairman Friedrich Peter had decided “No red Federal Chancellor” before the election, it supported the SPÖ minority government by promising the long-discussed reform of the National Council suffrage. This reform primarily brought improvements for the small parties, as the entry barrier to parliament was lowered by increasing the number of seats from 165 to 183 and reducing the number of constituencies. In addition, through the introduction of Hare's system, the number of votes that a mandate cost was adjusted, and thus the privileges of the major parties were eliminated.

When the SPÖ and FPÖ were able to agree on a budget, nothing stood in the way of an SPÖ minority government, and on April 21, 1970, Federal President Franz Jonas appointed the Kreisky I cabinet, the first, and so far only, minority government in Austria.

Kreisky put his government together in such a way that there were sympathizers for all groups of voters. A non-party, Catholic foreign minister (Rudolf Kirchschläger), a woman at the head of the newly founded Ministry of Science (Hertha Firnberg), a young finance minister (Hannes Androsch) and, last but not least, four ministers with a Nazi past for the nationally-minded electorate (Otto Rösch (Interior Minister ), Erwin Frühbauer (Transport Minister), Josef Moser (Building Minister), Johann Öllinger (Agriculture Minister))

The Kreisky I government benefited greatly from the favorable budget situation that the previous governments had helped to create (net budget deficit in 1970: 0.6% GDP). The most important reforms in the 18-month legislative period were the abolition of the special car tax, the increase in the widow's pension by 10% and the shortening of military service to six months and 60 days of weapons training. When the polls were favorable, the SPÖ and FPÖ set October 10, 1971 as election day for new elections. At that time the SPÖ achieved an absolute majority of votes and mandates with 50.03% and ruled for another 12 years alone under Federal Chancellor Kreisky.

In 2019, after the resignation of all FPÖ ministers of the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition, a minority government was set up by ÖVP Chancellor Kurz for the transitional period until the announced new election, which, however, was expressed by the National Council after a week.

Conditions which are described in the Austrian public as "free play of forces in parliament", such as B. 2017 or 2019 after the announcement of new elections, do not describe a government and its strength of votes in the National Council, although a minority government is based on such parliamentary relationships with regard to parliamentary dynamics. The same can therefore also be the case with non-party governments (such as the so-called "expert government" of Chancellor Bierlein in 2019 ), concordance-democratic concentration government (as is common in Switzerland ) and theoretically with governmentless conditions.

East Timor

Marí Bin Amude Alkatiri was sworn in as Prime Minister on September 15, 2017. Alkatiris FRETILIN signed a coalition agreement with the Partido Democrático (PD) on September 13th . The alliance only had 30 of the 65 seats in the parliament elected on July 22nd . The originally planned third coalition partner KHUNTO did not sign the contract at the last moment due to internal disputes. Before the election, East Timor was ruled by an all party government.

In the following months there was a confrontation between the government and the parliamentary majority . After the government was unable to push through any more projects, President Francisco Guterres decided on January 26, 2018 to dissolve parliament. The early elections in 2018 led to a change of government.

Portugal

In Portugal there are often minority governments, mostly formed by the socialist party PS . Governments without a parliamentary majority held office from 1976 to 1979, from 1985 to 1987, from 1995 to 2002 and from 2009 to 2011. The Costa I cabinet, which has been in office since 2015, was also a minority government.

Sweden

In Sweden , minority governments are the norm. Since the unicameral system was introduced in 1970, there have only been governments with an absolute majority from 1976 to 1978, from 1979 to 1981 and most recently from 2006 to 2010; in all three cases there were bourgeois coalition governments.

Slovakia

The Slovakia has also ruled some time of minority governments, often after a once worn by a majority coalition government had broken:

For example, the incumbent Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar lost his majority in the National Council when members of his party resigned and was dismissed in March 1994. The then formed interim government under Jozef Moravčík led the country to early elections , which in turn brought Mečiar back to power.

The second government of Mikuláš Dzurinda , formed after the parliamentary elections in 2002 and consisting of four bourgeois parties, lost nominally its party-political majority in parliament in August 2005 due to the departure of the ANO party due to a corruption scandal surrounding chairman Pavol Rusko , but was initially able to rely on it Support a majority of independent MPs. However, after the KDH party also withdrew its ministers from the government in February 2006, the parties again agreed on early elections , with the government remaining provisionally in office until then.

Prime Minister Iveta Radičová also ruled from October 4, 2011 to April 4, 2012 in a provisional minority government , after the previous coalition partner SaS terminated her allegiance in a vote of confidence. The government was tolerated during this period until the agreed early elections of opposition leader Robert Fico and the largest parliamentary group, the SMER, as executive.

Spain

Coalitions are quite common at local and regional level. However, since the first free elections in 1977, the major parties UCD , PSOE or PP have ruled all of Spain , each alone, either with an absolute majority or as a minority government. From 1977 to 1982 UCD minority governments ruled. After that, the PSOE ruled with an absolute majority until 1989. In 1989 the PSOE won exactly half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In 1993 it only reached 159 of the 350 seats, but continued to rule without a majority. In the early parliamentary elections in 1996, the PP gained a relative majority, PP leader Aznar formed a minority government. In 2000, the PP won an absolute majority. From 2004 to 2011 Zapatero was head of a PSOE minority government. From December 2011, the PP ruled with an absolute majority, after the loss of the majority in the 2015 elections, but initially in an executive role, after the failure of the formation of a government and the new elections in 2016 with again similar majorities, with the tolerance of the PSOE as a minority government.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic has also been ruled by a minority government several times in recent history:

The center-right government of Vaclav Klaus was missing after the 1996 elections just a voice to the majority of the seats. Since neither political cooperation with the communist party KSČM nor with the extreme right in parliament was desired at that time, the social democrats ČSSD supported the government until it broke up in 1997 due to internal disputes in the largest ruling party, ODS . A transitional government composed of senior officials led by Josef Tošovský , which was legitimized by parliament with a corresponding majority , led the way to the new election .

After the early elections in 1998, after unsuccessful negotiations with the smaller bourgeois parties , the Social Democratic Prime Minister Miloš Zeman also formed a minority government , which in turn was supported by the second largest parliamentary group, the ODS , on the basis of the so-called opposition treaty . Although the ODS itself was not represented by ministers in the government, there were joint committee meetings between the partners, as in a coalition, in which political agreements were reached. This government was in office for the full term until 2002.

The governments of Mirek Topolánek (2006–2009) also formed minority governments: First, after a stalemate in parliament between right and left camps after the elections , Topolánek tried to achieve a new edition of the opposition treaty. But it failed because of the rejection of its first government , which was formed from ODS members and non-party members, by the ČSSD, chaired by Jiří Paroubek . Thereupon, at the second attempt, he formed a coalition government with the smaller bourgeois parties in parliament, which only had 100 out of 200 seats in parliament and thus exactly one seat too few for stable government work. The parliamentary work was, however, secured by two defectors from the social democratic ČSSD, who had since left their parliamentary group. However, this model proved to be no longer viable - after several MPs had left the parliamentary groups in charge of the government - and was overthrown by a vote of no confidence in the parliament in spring 2009. Due to the lack of a clear majority in parliament, the Czech Republic was again led by an official government under Jan Fischer until the end of the legislature , which was able to rely on a large majority in parliament.

In July 2013, after the resignation of the incumbent government under Petr Nečas , a cabinet of civil servants under Jiří Rusnok was again formed , which in fact did not include any members of the parties represented in parliament. This government failed in the vote of confidence in parliament. However, since there was no majority in parliament for any other government, it dissolved itself by resolution shortly after the confidence vote. Since then, the cabinet has continued to govern as executive until the early elections . The Andrej Babiš government, in office since December 2017 , also does not have a parliamentary majority.

Japan

Minority governments are rare in Japan , as the lower house of the national parliament , which can always overrule the upper house in the prime ministerial election , was previously only elected by majority vote, today it is mostly elected by majority voting, which usually produces clear majorities. They did occur nonetheless: during the occupation after the Pacific War, when the party system was still being reformed, and most recently during the party reshuffles in the 1990s: in 1994 the Hata cabinet , which was without a majority in both chambers when the socialists left during the formation of the government after around two months, the now forming (at least initially: grand) coalition of Liberal Democrats and Socialists was overthrown, and in numerical terms at the beginning of 1996 the second Hashimoto's cabinet , which controlled both chambers of parliament through a cooperation agreement with the Social Democrats and soon one through accessions own absolute majority in the lower house won. It has been more common in the last few decades that a ruling coalition has a lower house majority, but not an upper house majority, a so-called "twisted parliament" ( Nejire Kokkai ). The legislation requires either a two-thirds majority of the government in the lower house, which makes it possible to overrule the upper house, or negotiations with parts of the opposition - for each individual law or in a longer-term cooperation agreement with individual parties or parliamentary groups.

Under the imperial constitution, the cabinet was, at least formally, not dependent on parliamentary majorities, even if constitutional practice in the 20th century during the so-called Taishō democracy developed approaches of a parliamentary system.

In contrast to the parliamentary system at the national level, there is now a presidential system with directly elected governors and mayors at the prefecture and local level.

nomenclature

In the media you hear and read now and then about a "minority s government". This term is misleading insofar as not only do various minorities form a government, but specifically the formed government represents a minority vis-à-vis the opposition. Ordinary government is also supported by parliamentary groups whose affiliated parties each received less than 50% of the vote in the election. However, neither "minority s government" nor "minority s no mention of government" legal concepts and the Basic Law.

See also

• In the political context, a distinction must always be made between a democratic minority and a demographic minority .

• Hung parliament

literature

• Alfred Ableitinger: The domestic political development. In: Wolfgang Mantl (Ed.): Politics in Austria. The second republic: existence and change . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna et al. 1992, ISBN 3-205-05379-6 , pp. 119–203.
• Herbert Dachs (Ed.): Politics in Austria. The manual . Manz Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-214-07679-5 .
• Matthias Finkemeier: minority governments. An empirical-analytical study to make majority formation more flexible at the state level in Germany. Heidelberg 2014. (Available at http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17355 ).
• Bernd-Christian Funk: Introduction to Austrian constitutional law. 11th edition. Leykam Verlag, Graz 2003, ISBN 3-7011-9101-8 .
• Stephan Klecha : Minority governments in Germany . Lower Saxony regional office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Hanover 2010.
• Thomas Puhl : The minority government according to the Basic Law. (= Public Law Writings. Volume 501). Duncker & Humblot Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05942-5 .
• Kaare Strøm: Minority Governments and Majority Rule . Cambridge 1990.
• Sven Thomas: Government practice by minority governments. The example of the "Magdeburg Model" . Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-8244-4539-5 .
• Mahir Tokatli: Minority governments in Germany a future model or just an alternative with no prospect of realization? Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8386-0872-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bpb.de
2. ↑ sueddeutsche.de
3. ↑ landtag.nrw.de
4. ↑ Tagesschau: Agreement on minority government in the Netherlands ( Memento from October 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ After a judgment of the Constitutional Court of June 24, 1970 declared the election in three Viennese constituencies to be invalid, when the election was repeated there on October 4, 1970, the ÖVP lost its 79th mandate to the FPÖ, supplementary part for publication of the Interior Ministry on the 1970 National Council election (PDF; 647 kB)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Alfred Ableitinger: The internal political development. In: W. Mantl (Ed.): Politics in Austria. The second republic: existence and change. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna a. a. 1992, p. 184 f.
7. ^ Wolfgang C. Müller: party system; Framework conditions, format and mechanics of the party competition. In: H. Dachs (Ed.): Politics in Austria. The manual. Manz Verlag, Vienna 2006, p. 286 f.
8. ↑ SAPO: VII Governo constitucional de Timor-Leste toma hoje posse incompleto , September 15, 2017 , accessed on September 15, 2017.
9. ↑ Timor Agora: Deputadu Foun Balun Komesa Falta , September 13, 2017 , accessed on September 13, 2017.
10. ^ President of East Timor: MESSAGE OF HE THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC , January 26, 2018 , accessed on January 26, 2018.
11. ↑ https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/minderheitsregierung_18336104

Web links

Wiktionary: minority government  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Scientific Services of the German Bundestag: Minority Governments since 1990 (PDF file; 59.4 kB)