Suchergebnisse

The vote of no-confidence is the primary mechanism through which the principle of government accountability to the legislature – the defining feature of parliamentary democracy – is achieved. Yet, no research has been devoted to its influence on the relations between the government and the mechanism's main users – the opposition. This article attempts to fill this lacuna by theorising how restrictiveness in the vote of no-confidence influences the opposition's strategies vis-à-vis the government in legislative voting. We delineate the influence of the vote of no-confidence on the opposition via its preference to pursue more cooperative strategies, as opposed to conflictual ones, distinguishing between the two stages of the vote of no-confidence – initiating and voting. We empirically explore the relation between the vote of no-confidence and the voting behaviour of 59 opposition parties in 16 countries, showing that greater restrictions on both stages of the vote of no-confidence correlate with less conflictual opposition behaviour.

This text presents a new approach to understanding political parties. It sheds light on the inner dynamics of party politics and offers a comprehensive analysis of one of the most important processes any party undertakes, its process of candidate selection.

The coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) was sworn in on 31 March 2009, following the 10 February elections. Likud headed a majority coalition government that also included Israel Our Home, Labour, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and the Jewish Home, for a total of 74 of the 120 parliamentary seats (Hazan and Diskin, 2010). One center party (Kadima), one right-wing party (National Union), one Jewish-supported left-wing party (Meretz) and three Arab-supported parties (Hadash, Balad, Ra'am/Ta'al) remained in opposition. In spite of the fact that Likud held only 27 seats, the coalition was quite stable and survived almost four full years. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]