Does Coalition Politics Matter for Citizens’ Political Efficacy?

• In Event: Citizens and Coalition Politics: A Democratic Challenge?

Abstract

Coalition politics presents a considerable challenge to citizens. Not only do they need to know the position of the parties they can vote for, they also need to take into account which government coalitions the parties are likely to enter into after an election. And, despite their best efforts to stay informed, they may find that the party they voted for eventually joins a coalition with a completely different set of parties than the ones they expected. For these reasons, coalition politics may be a great source of frustration for citizens and impede on their satisfaction with democracy as well as their efficacy. Yet, surprisingly, we know fairly little about whether that is actually the case. We analyze this question using a three-wave panel study of citizens during and after the 2022 Danish general election. The 2022 election provides a unique opportunity to study our question. Even though most parties vouched to stay loyal to their bloc alliances, several parties expressed coalition preferences that ran against the established structure of Danish coalition politics. Furthermore, after the election, the first majority coalition in nearly 30 years was surprisingly formed with participation of the major parties normally contending for office – including one that had firmly rejected the idea of a “grand coalition” throughout the campaign. The difficulty of navigating Danish coalition politics during the campaign thus varied over time and between citizens depending on the party they preferred, and the coalition that formed was different from what citizens and political experts expected.

Authors

• Christoffer Green-Pedersen, University of Aarhus

• Mathias Tromborg, Aarhus University

• Ida Baek Hjermitslev, Aalborg University