History written by the losers? Small parties in European governments 1990–2019

Sula, Piotr (author)

This paper seeks to identify the determinants of the successes (government entry) of small political parties in 21 European states. Although the term small party is used quite regularly the borders between small, medium or large parties are not precisely delineated. To overcome this problem, I propose an original mathematical formula to select the group of 26 small parties based on the same criteria in 21 European states. Having this sample, I analyse all coalition cabinets to which these parties were invited as the junior partners. The main goal in this paper is to explain the causes of these parties' presence in the governments and explore the determinants of the portfolio allocations by combining quantitative (i.e. Banzhaf Power Index) and qualitative (ideological distance) measures. Some of the conclusions confirm previous findings (disproportional portfolio allocation which favours small parties) and some only partially overlap with the conclusions drawn in the previous studies (the relation between the number of potential/ alternative collaborators and the likelihood that the small party becomes the coalition member). This study deals with the cases from Central and East European States, and Western Europe.

• Language: English
• Keywords: small parties, government representation, European states
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 5-20
• Numbering: Vol. 18, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179317
• UDC: 329(4)
• ISSN on article: 1338-1385
• COBISS.SI-ID: 267896067
• Publication date in RUL: 10.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of comparative politics
• Publisher: Department of Political Science, Center for Analysis of Administrative-Political Processes and Institutions, Alma Mater Europea-European Centre Maribor (AMEU-ECM)
• ISSN: 1338-1385
• COBISS.SI-ID: 29224285

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Zgodovina, ki jo pišejo poraženci?

Abstract

Prispevek skuša identificirati dejavnike uspeha (vstop v vlado) majhnih političnih strank v 21 evropskih državah. Čeprav se izraz majhna stranka precej pogosto uporablja, meje med majhnimi, srednjimi ali velikimi strankami niso natančno začrtane. Da bi rešili to težavo, predlagamo izvirno matematično formulo za izbiro skupine 26 majhnih strank na podlagi istih meril v 21 evropskih državah. Na tem vzorcu analiziramo vse koalicijske vlade, v katere so bile te stranke povabljene kot manjši partnerji. Glavni cilj prispevka je razložiti vzroke za prisotnost majhnih strank v vladah in raziskati determinante dodeljevanja ministrstev s kombinacijo kvantitativnih (tj. Banzhafov indeks moči) in kvalitativnih (ideološka distanca) meritev. Nekateri zaključki potrjujejo dosedanje ugotovitve (nesorazmerna razdelitev ministrskih mest v korist majhnih strank), nekateri pa se le delno prekrivajo z zaključki prejšnjih študij (razmerje med številom potencialnih/alternativnih sodelavcev in verjetnostjo, da majhna stranka postane koalicijska stranka). Študija obravnava primere iz držav srednje, vzhodne in zahodne Evrope.

• Keywords: male stranke, vladno predstavništvo, evropske države

Projects

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Project number: PPN/BEK/2018/1/00332