The Development of Parliamentarism in Western Europe
(2022) In Lund Political Studies 208.- Abstract
- This dissertation describes and explains the development of parliamentarism in Western Europe. Defining parliamentarism as an institutional solution in which the government is politically responsible to parliament only, I use country historiography to map out a tug-of-war between parliament and the head of state over the ability to make governments resign or maintain them in office in 11 West European countries since the establishment of national parliaments. To describe the development of parliamentarism, I use a Bayesian learning model that estimates how expectations of who might make the government in office resign are updated, based on information on previous government-termination attempts at each point in time. I argue that... (More)
- This dissertation describes and explains the development of parliamentarism in Western Europe. Defining parliamentarism as an institutional solution in which the government is politically responsible to parliament only, I use country historiography to map out a tug-of-war between parliament and the head of state over the ability to make governments resign or maintain them in office in 11 West European countries since the establishment of national parliaments. To describe the development of parliamentarism, I use a Bayesian learning model that estimates how expectations of who might make the government in office resign are updated, based on information on previous government-termination attempts at each point in time. I argue that parliamentarism is institutionalized when past experience suggests that there is good reason to believe that no actor other than parliament can make the government resign. In addition, I theorize that the emergence of party systems, and the development of party-system fragmentation and polarization, affect the ability and willingness of parliamentary party leaders and heads of state to enforce parliamentarism or its counter-factual, power sharing, in practice. Having described the development of parliamentarism in the countries included in this dissertation, I show that parliamentarism never developed before the emergence of party systems, and I find support for my theory in time-series cross-sectional regression. Party-system fragmentation affects parliamentarism negatively, and some party-system polarization affects parliamentarism positively while much party-system polarization affects parliamentarism negatively. I complement the regression analyses by analyzing the behavior of the relevant actors in four case studies: Denmark from the 1850s to the 1920s, Belgium from the 1830s to the 1950s, France from the 1940s to the 1960s, and Finland from the 1920s to the 1990s. These case studies substantiate my argument about the effect of party systems further. Thus, the dissertation illustrates how a Bayesian learning model can be used to estimate institutional change and contributes with substantive knowledge about the development of a very important political institution in Western Europe. The results have implications for knowledge about West European democratization, the role of parties to enforce political institutions, and understandings of how political conflict can have both positive and negative effects on politics. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Avhandlingen beskriver och förklarar parlamentarismens utveckling i Västeuropa. Jag definierar parlamentarismen som ett institutionellt arrangemang där endast parlamentet kan hålla regeringen politiskt ansvarig, vilket i det västeuropeiska historiska sammanhanget innebär att statschefen saknar reellt inflytande över regeringens fortlevnad. Genom att samla data från historieforskning om parlamentens och statschefernas möjligheter att få en regering att avgå eller kvarstanna tecknar jag parlamentarismens utveckling i elva länder alltsedan parlamentens tillkomst, och lägger sedan den insamlade informationen till grund för en bayesiansk tidsserieanalys av hur förväntningarna om vem som kan avsätta regeringen förändras efter hand som fler och... (More)
- Avhandlingen beskriver och förklarar parlamentarismens utveckling i Västeuropa. Jag definierar parlamentarismen som ett institutionellt arrangemang där endast parlamentet kan hålla regeringen politiskt ansvarig, vilket i det västeuropeiska historiska sammanhanget innebär att statschefen saknar reellt inflytande över regeringens fortlevnad. Genom att samla data från historieforskning om parlamentens och statschefernas möjligheter att få en regering att avgå eller kvarstanna tecknar jag parlamentarismens utveckling i elva länder alltsedan parlamentens tillkomst, och lägger sedan den insamlade informationen till grund för en bayesiansk tidsserieanalys av hur förväntningarna om vem som kan avsätta regeringen förändras efter hand som fler och fler, främst lyckade men även misslyckade, avsättningsförsök kan iakttas över tid. Jag hävdar att parlamentarismen ska ses som institutionaliserad när tidigare erfarenhet ger goda skäl att tro att enbart parlamentet kan få regeringen att avgå. De beskrivande resultaten används sedan för att testa den förklarande teorin som utarbetats. Denna teori gör gällande att uppkomsten av nationella partisystem samt förändringar i partisystemens fragmentering och polarisering påverkar politiska ledares och statschefers förmåga och vilja att i praktiken upprätthålla parlamentarismen och dess kontrafaktiska utfall, maktdelning. Jag visar att partisystemens växte fram före parlamentarismen och jag använder regressionsanalys för att få stöd för min teori: ökande partisystemsfragmentering påverkar parlamentarismen negativt, medan ökande partisystemspolarisering eller ideologiska skillnader mellan partier påverkar parlamentarismen positivt upp till en viss punkt, varefter ökande partisystemspolarisering påverkar parlamentarismen negativt. Jag kompletterar de statistiska analyserna med fallstudier av fyra landperioder: Danmark från 1850-talet till 1920-talet, Belgien från 1830-talet till 1960-talet, Frankrike från 1940-talet till 1960-talet och Finland från 1920-talet till 1990-talet. Fallstudierna ger ytterligare stöd för mina argument om partisystemens betydelse. Därmed illustrerar avhandlingen hur bayesiansk tidsserieanalys kan användas för att fånga institutionell förändring och den bidrar med ny kunskap om en central västeuropeisk politisk institution. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/28169857-7931-426d-b16f-6baf0c04cbbb
- author
- Davidsson, Simon LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Professor Rasch, Björn Erik, University of Oslo
- organization
- alternative title
- Parlamentarismens utveckling i Västeuropa
- publishing date
- 2022-09-14
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- parlamentarism, partisystem, västeuropa, institutionell förändring, parliamentarism, party systems, Western Europe, institutional change
- in
- Lund Political Studies
- volume
- 208
- pages
- 337 pages
- publisher
- Lund University
- defense location
- Edens hörsal, Allhelgona kyrkogata 14, Lund
- defense date
- 2022-10-07 10:00:00
- ISSN
- 0460-0037
- ISBN
- 978-91-8039-385-0
- 978-91-8039-385-0
- project
- The Development of Parliamentarism in Western Europe
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 28169857-7931-426d-b16f-6baf0c04cbbb
- date added to LUP
- 2022-09-08 13:11:12
- date last changed
- 2022-09-09 11:29:25
@phdthesis{28169857-7931-426d-b16f-6baf0c04cbbb,
abstract = {{This dissertation describes and explains the development of parliamentarism in Western Europe. Defining parliamentarism as an institutional solution in which the government is politically responsible to parliament only, I use country historiography to map out a tug-of-war between parliament and the head of state over the ability to make governments resign or maintain them in office in 11 West European countries since the establishment of national parliaments. To describe the development of parliamentarism, I use a Bayesian learning model that estimates how expectations of who might make the government in office resign are updated, based on information on previous government-termination attempts at each point in time. I argue that parliamentarism is institutionalized when past experience suggests that there is good reason to believe that no actor other than parliament can make the government resign. In addition, I theorize that the emergence of party systems, and the development of party-system fragmentation and polarization, affect the ability and willingness of parliamentary party leaders and heads of state to enforce parliamentarism or its counter-factual, power sharing, in practice. Having described the development of parliamentarism in the countries included in this dissertation, I show that parliamentarism never developed before the emergence of party systems, and I find support for my theory in time-series cross-sectional regression. Party-system fragmentation affects parliamentarism negatively, and some party-system polarization affects parliamentarism positively while much party-system polarization affects parliamentarism negatively. I complement the regression analyses by analyzing the behavior of the relevant actors in four case studies: Denmark from the 1850s to the 1920s, Belgium from the 1830s to the 1950s, France from the 1940s to the 1960s, and Finland from the 1920s to the 1990s. These case studies substantiate my argument about the effect of party systems further. Thus, the dissertation illustrates how a Bayesian learning model can be used to estimate institutional change and contributes with substantive knowledge about the development of a very important political institution in Western Europe. The results have implications for knowledge about West European democratization, the role of parties to enforce political institutions, and understandings of how political conflict can have both positive and negative effects on politics.}},
author = {{Davidsson, Simon}},
isbn = {{978-91-8039-385-0}},
issn = {{0460-0037}},
keywords = {{parlamentarism; partisystem; västeuropa; institutionell förändring; parliamentarism; party systems; Western Europe; institutional change}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{09}},
publisher = {{Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund Political Studies}},
title = {{The Development of Parliamentarism in Western Europe}},
volume = {{208}},
year = {{2022}},
}