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THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE FAIRLY LIMITED RESEARCH ON THE ROLES OF DANISH MPS. ANALYTICALLY, ONE MAY DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ROLES RELATING TO REPRESENTATION AND TO DECISION MAKING. PARTY IS THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF REPRESENTATION, ALTHOUGH ELECTORAL DISTRICTS AND INTEREST GROUPS ARE ALSO IMPORTANT TO SEVERAL MPS. IN TERMS OF REPRESENTATIONAL STYLE, MPS DIFFER ACCORDING TO PARTY AFFILIATION: PARTY DELEGATE VIEWS DOMINATE IN LEFTIST PARTIES, WHEREAS TRUSTEE CONVICTIONS DOMINATE IN THE PARTIES OF THE CENTER AND RIGHT. DECISION-MAKING ROLES GENERALLY INCLUDE SUBJECT-MATTER SPECIALIZATION. THE MORE SPECIFIC ROLE BEHAVIOR OF MPS DEPENDS VERY MUCH UPON WHETHER THEIR PARTY IS IN GOVERNMENT OR OPPOSITION.

"Termination of government coalitions" is an ambiguous notion. While the concepts of "termination" and "coalition" do not present insurmountable problems. the concept of "governments" is indeed very tricky. Empirical findings on termination of governments are highly dependent upon the definition of government, as shown by a Danish case study of 1945‐93. A government is defined on the basis of party composition. It is found that Danish majority coalitions terminate because they lose the first upcoming election. whereas minority coalitions terminate for party strategic reasons. notably decisions made by the pivotal Radical Liberal Party.

Anders Sannerstedt, Förhandlingar i riksdagen. Lund: Lund University Press, 1992, 277 s.; Mats Sjölin, Coalition Politics and Parliamentary Power> Lund: Lund University Press, 1993, 230 s.

Petersen, I. D. The World War Pattern: Outbreak of International Wars (1823-1989) as Stochastic Diffusion Processes. Cooperation and Conflict, XXVI, 1991, 1-20. This article describes outbreak of international wars in the period 1823-1989 as a sequential series of stochastic diffusion processes. These processes are of two types: Processes of decreasing probability of international war as a function of time and processes of increasing probability of international war as a function of time. Both types are characterized by having in all three different levels of intensity: fast, moderately fast or slow. It is hypothesized that they are conditioned by changing states of the international system/world system. Superimposed on these basic diffusion processes, however, is another pattern of diffusion (somewhat reminiscent of an epidemiological model), occurring twice, leading up to both World Wars. This pattern could also be found in a somewhat truncated form in the first half of the 19th century and in the period after the Second World War. In both cases, lesser wars seem to have taken the place of real world wars.