History, paradigms, perspectives and features of the study of minority governments in contemporary political science: theoretical and methodological context

Abstract

The article deals with the consideration and systematisation of the history, paradigms, perspectives and features of the study of minority governments in contemporary political science, in particular in the theoretical and methodological context. The author found that the number of scientific and theoretical researches devoted to minority governments is directly proportional to the number of empirical cases of minority governments in different countries. It was stated that all researches on minority governments should be divided into three clusters or groups: from the standpoint of the theory and tradition of rational choice, from the standpoint of the new institutionalism approach and from the standpoint of party theory. In view of this, it was argued that the studies of minority governments are basically determined by a combination of differ- ent theoretical and methodological paradigms, which focus on outlining the various factors of formation and functioning of minority governments. Among them, the article highlighted such as: strategic factors that outline the electoral prospects of various political actors; institutional factors that are determined primarily by the peculiarities of parliamentary norms and procedures and the parameters of their implementation; structural factors that are described by intra-party and inter-party interactions of different parties.