Government formation periods vary greatly across multiparty democracies, yet little is known about the bargaining processes involved.
New Dataset on European Coalition Bargaining: We introduce a novel dataset covering 303 government formation attempts in nineteen European countries from [Specify Time Period if provided].
Factors Influencing Duration: Our analysis reveals that several actor-specific factors shorten coalition bargaining:
- Preference tangentiality (how similar parties are)
- Ideological proximity between parties
- Incumbency status of the party
- Party leadership tenure
These findings, uncovered through a copula approach addressing non-random selection issues, demonstrate that these factors significantly impact duration.
Systemic Context Matters: Importantly, they also interact with systemic context factors:
- Post-election bargaining dynamics
- Complexity of the party system
This study underscores the necessity of examining both actor-specific and broader institutional factors to fully understand government formation timelines in European multiparty democracies.
