Parliamentary government formation and public policy in Belgium and the Netherlands

My analysis involves two interrelated exercises. First, an analytical framework is elaborated. It reveals the major components and dimensions of government coalition formations. Second, three case studies describe the recent coalition formation processes in Belgium and the Netherlands. The case studies are the major foundation for the analytical framework and are used to provide a basis for comparison and for looking at variation within government coalition formation processes.

This study shows that the formation of a coalition government is a very complex and multidimensional process. It is best described as a process of consensus building among actors on various issues on which they have divergent, overlapping and different interests. In multiparty parliamentary democracies some policy is made or at least partially made neither in government nor parliament but in the government formation arena.