Conclusions — Sub-National Coalition Formation in Multi-Level Settings

Abstract

As noted in the introduction, despite the substantial scholarly attention paid in recent literature to topics such as multi-level governance, regionalization, territorialization and the denationalization of politics, research on how parties form coalitions in multi-level settings has not yet been systematically addressed. And yet, government formation is a phenomenon to which political parties attach primary importance. Its causes and consequences extend to aspects related to the party system in general and party competition in particular, party organizational rules and dynamics, party goals and party strategy, but also to a broad range of institutional rules and practices and the general policy-making system of a country.