The Black Widow Effect: Why Britain's Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Might Have an Unhappy Ending

In: Parliamentary affairs: a journal of comparative politics, Band 65, Heft 2, S. 323-337

Abstract

The UK may be relatively unfamiliar with coalition governments, but they are very common in other parts of the world-so much so that political scientists now have a very good idea of what makes some governments last and some end early. This article summarises the cross-national research on coalitions and on the entry into government of parties that are unfamiliar with its constraints, and uses it, together with a case study of another Westminster system that suddenly had to get used to 'hung parliaments', to suggest that we must not assume that the Cameron-Clegg coalition is somehow bound to last the full five years. Adapted from the source document.