Welcome to the Governments in Europe Data Archive
The Governments in Europe project connects ten senior scholars in ten Baltic and East Central Europe countries with Södertörn University, Sweden, for the purpose of conducting cutting edge comparative research on the formation and stability of national governments. In particular, the project examines two aspects of government formation and termination that in the region have not yet been the subject of scholarly inquiry. One of these is coalition governance. Knowledge about this aspect of national politics in the region is today very scarce, both in the international literature and (according to our country experts) in the national languages of the countries. We are particularly interested in developing an understanding of the conflict resolution mechanisms that government parties try to use to enforce and maintain their coalitions. Second, while there is a body literature about how long governments typically stay in power, very little is known about the specific reasons as to why they terminate. Research about these topics requires both systematic data-collection and qualitative case studies that are context sensitive and written by scholars with a high degree of insight into the politics of each country.
This project is part of an international research collaboration aimed at improving our understanding of what goes on inside European governments and parliaments. In the Södertörn project, we put much time and effort into establishing firm and precise information about governments, political parties and parliaments in the CEE region. In a parallel project, a research team led by Professor Wolfgang C. Müller at the University of Vienna is preparing an in-depth analysis of the many crucial aspects of coalition governance in Central Eastern Europe that remain to be researched. This includes coalition agreements and how coalition management mechanisms are designed and maintained, as well as when and how they actually work. If this collaboration is successful and sufficient funds are granted, we will also aim to include all of the EU member states in a study of representative democracy in the new Europe.
While the project is ongoing, the Data Archive section is restricted to project participants.
Project participants: Log in here.