Parliaments and Government Formation Unpacking Investiture Rules

Parliaments and Government Formation explores the role of national legislatures in shaping government formation in parliamentary regimes. Under parliamentarism, the government comes from, and remains responsible to, the national parliament. Yet, although legislatures and the politics of government formation are two of the most studied phenomenon in comparative politics, relatively little attention has focused on the degree to which parliamentary rules and procedures impact government formation. For instance, exactly what does 'come from parliament' mean in the context of government formation?

To answer this question, the volume seeks to 'unpack' the parliamentary investiture vote. Investiture consists of a vote in parliament to demonstrate that an already formed or about to be formed government has legislative support. The volume analyses investiture along six dimensions: (1) the number of chambers involved in government formation, (2) the exact topic of any investiture vote - for example whether the votes focuses on one or more of the prime ministership, the cabinet and/or the government's policy program, (3) the sequencing and timing of the vote in the overall game of government formation, (4) the decision rule - for example absolute majority, simple or some form of negative parliamentarism, (5) the number of rounds provided for, and (6) what happens in the event of a failure to invest a government. Each of the 16 case studies, written by leading scholars of legislative politics in their respective polities, seeks to describe the institutional rules and practices and analyse their origins and consequences. These case studies are supplemented with two comparative chapters

Bjorn Erik Rasch is Professor of Political Science and Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo. His research is currently focused on legislative organization, parliamentarism, and constitutional amendment procedures. Rasch has written or edited eleven books, of which The Role of Governments in Legislative Agenda Setting (co-edited with George Tsebelis, 2011) is the latest one. He has published numerous articles in books and journals such as Public Choice , Legislative Studies Quarterly, Journal of Legislative Studies, and European Journal of Political Economy. Rasch was member of a Constitutional Commission appointed by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003 to review and modernize the Court of Impeachment and a committee who designed a new electoral system for the Sami Parliament in Northern Norway. Rasch is a member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Shane Martin is Reader in Comparative Politics at the University of Leicester. His research focuses on how electoral incentives shape representatives' preferences, the internal structures of legislatures, and executive oversight. Recent research by Martin has appeared in the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Legislative Studies, Political Studies, West European Politics, and Irish Political Studies. He is co-editor (with Kaare Strom and Thomas Saalfeld) of The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies (2014). He was founding Co-Convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments and was founding Co-Director of the European Summer School on Parliaments.

Jose Antonio Cheibub is Boeschenstein Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also Faculty Associate at the Cline Center for Democracy at the University of Illinois. His research and teaching interests are in democratization, the emergence and effects of specific democratic institutions, and political economy. He is the author of Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy (Cambridge University Press 2007), the co-editor of the Democracy Sourcebook (MIT Press, 2003) and the co-author of Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 2000). He has published in several edited volumes and in journals such as American Political Science Review, World Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and Politics and Society.

Part I: Introduction
1. Investiture Rules and Government Formation, Bjorn Erik Rasch, Shane Martin, and Jose Antonio Cheibub
Part II: Varieties of Investiture Rules
2. Parliament and Government Formation in the United Kingdom: A Hidden Vote of Investiture?, Alexandra Kelso
3. Changing Investiture Rules in Belgium, Audrey Andre, Sam Depauw, and Kris Deschouwer
4. Investiture Rules in Germany: Stacking the Deck against Minority Governments, Steffen Ganghof and Christian Stecker
5. A Rule for All Seasons? Investiture and Government Formation in Hungary, Peter Horvath
6. The Increasing Role of the European Parliament in Appointing the European Commission, Fabio Sozzi
Part III: Investiture Rules and Minority Governments
7. Government Formation in Ireland: Learning to Live Without a Majority Party, Shane Martin
8. Government Formation in Italy: The Challenge of Bicameral Investiture, Federico Russo
9. Why Minority Governments in Spain? How the Party System Undermines Investiture Rules, Natalia Ajenjo
10. Investiture Rules and Minority Governments in Poland, Radoslaw Zubek
11. Changing Investiture Rules in the Czech Republic, Robert Zbiral
12. Strong Investiture Rules and Minority Governments in Romania, Cristina Chiva
13. Parliamentary Investiture Rules in Portugal's Semi-Presidential Democracy, Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Jorge M. Fernandes
14. Weak Investiture Rules and the Emergence of Minority Governments in Sweden, Helena Wockelberg
Part IV: Beyond Investiture Rules: Legislative Norms and Government Formation
15. Parliamentary Parties in the Netherlands: Informal Investiture behind Closed Doors, Andre Krouwel and Jelle Koedam
16. Government Investiture in India: Formal Rules and Informal Practices, Csaba Nikolenyi
17. France: Excluding Parliament from Government Formation, Iris Nguyen-Duy
Part V: Conclusion
18. Hire or Fire? The Link between Cabinet Investiture and Removal in Parliamentary Democracies, Ulrich Sieberer
19. Investiture Rules Unpacked, Bjorn Erik Rasch, Shane Martin, and Jose Antonio Cheibub