Minority government in the German Bundestag? Lessons on opposition behavior from Sweden

Government stability in the German Bundestag is traditionally tied to a parliamentary majority and an opposition minority. Nonetheless, minority governments in other Western democracies show that, despite the lack of a parliamentary majority, they govern stable and effectively together with the opposition. In this article, on the Swedish case, we examine how opposition parties in parliament are involved in the legislative process in a minority government and what patterns they follow in order to maintain governmental stability without neglecting their alternative function. The paper combines theoretical and conceptual considerations on the adequate understanding of the opposition in the Federal Republic of Germany with empirical findings on cooperation and conflicts between opposition party groups and minority governments. The results show that opposition parties strategically switch between confrontational (Westminster-style) and consensual patterns of behavior (republican). Through this flexible majority finding, opposition parties in parliament can alternately present themselves as policymakers or as an alternative counterpart to the government. This opposition behavior is functionally adequate under the conditions of a pluralized and fragmented party system and the resulting difficulties in forming a stable government majority.