Government formation duration at the sub-national level

Only gradually, scholars began to show interest in party competition at the sub-national level. Previous research has analysed, for example, which coalitions form at the regional tier. Yet, we still know very little about how long it takes until a sub-national government gets into office. Examining cabinet formation duration, however, is relevant since it has important consequences for the government’s ability to work as well as the citizens’ perception of the political system. In this paper, we test whether the hypotheses, formulated for the national level, travel to the sub-national level as well. Additionally, we hypothesize that the national level has a direct influence on the making of government at the sub-national level: due to the entanglement of both tiers, government formation at the lower level should be easier if the same parties, that are in government at the national level, are negotiating about forming a government. We test our theoretical expectations by relying on a newly compiled, comprehensive dataset about government formation duration in Austria and Germany between 1945 and 2020. Our results have important implications for our understanding of government formation at the sub-national level and the interplay between the national and sub-national level.