1. Government–Opposition Relations and the Vote of No-Confidence.
- Author
-
Tuttnauer, Or and Hazan, Reuven Y
- Subjects
- *
LEGISLATIVE voting , *POLITICAL parties , *GOVERNMENT accountability , *PUBLIC relations , *LEGISLATIVE bodies , *VOTING - Abstract
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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF