Fiscal Policies and Parliamentary Activities of Minority Governments in the German States

We examine fiscal policies and parliamentary activities of minority governments in the German states. Our sample includes the 16 German states over the period 1981-2024. The results show that minority governments implemented similar fiscal policies to majority governments. Minority governments had about 14 more parliamentary bills than majority governments, a result that is based on the activities of opposition parties and not of the minority governments. We conclude that minority governments have not performed worse than majority governments for a long time. We present case study evidence on minority governments in Thuringia and Saxony showing that a more fragmented party system makes it more difficult for minority governments to perform well and implement their policy goals. Future research should investigate in more detail the performance of minority governments in times of fragmented party systems.