How Minority Governments Govern

The primary challenge for minority governments is to build the majorities necessary to legislate and to govern. What strategies do they employ to do so? The goals of this chapter are threefold. The first is to establish how Spain’s minority governments govern, distinguishing between formal and substantive minority governments (Strom 1990a). Do they negotiate support agreements in an attempt to assure in advance a stable parliamentary majority or do they pursue ad hoc alliances with the parliamentary parties on an ongoing basis? The second goal is to evaluate whether how minority governments build majorities affects how well they govern. The third goal is to identify the political parties with whom the governments ally. In the process, the findings contribute to key debates about minority governments in office.