A THEORY OF GOVERNMENT FORMATION IN MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACIES

The dissertation formulates and tests a theory of government formation against the post-war experiences of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Finland and Israel. The theory seeks to predict and explain which parties will join a government, the policy preferences on which they will make their participation contingent and the status of the government--whether minority, minimum winning or oversized. Predictions are deduced from a theoretical typology of system attributes and are expressed in terms of the amount of policy conflict that exists between the party forming the government and each other party in the legislature. The theory is able to predict and explain over 80 percent of the outcomes.