Coalition Formation and the Inclusion of Green Parties in Swedish Local Government

In this paper I use unique elite survey data from an investigation conducted among councilors in a large sample of local authorities in Sweden to test hypotheses on coalition formation. By using a new approach to test coalition theories on these new data we can draw conclusions about the relative importance of different types of variables. I draw the conclusion that we have to pay attention to both traditional variables, such as size and policy, and institutional variables if our aim is to explain and predict coalition formation in general and coalition formation including green parties. * I would like to thank Jeremy Freese, Lanny W. Martin, Jan Teorell and Anders Westholm. Paper for presentation at the Workshop “Greens in Power: government formation, policy impacts and the future of green parties” at the ECPR Joint Sessions in Grenoble, April 6-11, 2001

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