Government–Opposition Relations and the Vote of No-Confidence

Or Tuttnauer*, Reuven Y. Hazan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)984-1004
Number of pages21
JournalPolitical Studies
Volume72
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

  • conflict
  • government
  • no-confidence
  • opposition
  • parliament

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