Governments’ Party Composition and Parliamentary Control: Consequences for Individual Ministers’ Policymaking Capabilities

In parliamentary democracies ministers are often considered to play an important role in policymaking, and with a high passage rate most passed laws are proposed by ministers. Members of parliaments’ role in policymaking is, on the other hand, often limited to exercising control of ministers. Arguably, a minister’s policymaking role depends on whether the minister participates in a single party government or a coalition of two or more parties. Moreover, in the latter cases, besides from the minister’s own party affiliation, the very composition of the coalition would matter as well with regards to the number parties, the size of the parties, the ideological difference between them and so forth. Parliamentary control of individual ministers would similarly be expected to be different among ministers from different government parties and in different types of coalitions, which again affects individual ministers’ policymaking capabilities. Yet, we know little of determinants of parliamentary control of individual ministers. Generally, studies on individual ministers’ policymaking role in coalitions are most scarce next to absent. In this article I compare and contrast parliamentary control of individual ministers across different parties in different coalition governments in Denmark from 2009 to 2023.