Acceso usuarios
Governments led by nonpartisan, ‘technocratic’ prime ministers are a rare phenomenon inparliamentary democracies, but have become more frequent since the late 1980s. This article focuses onthe factors that lead to the formation of such cabinets. It posits that parliamentary parties with the chance towin the prime ministerial post will only relinquish it during political and economic crises that drasticallyincrease the electoral costs of ruling and limit policy returns from governing. Statistical analyses of 469government formations in 29 European democracies between 1977 and 2013 suggest that political scandalsand economic recessions are major drivers of the occurrence of technocratic prime ministers. Meanwhile,neither presidential powers nor party system fragmentation and polarisation have any independent effect.The ndings suggest that parties strategically choose technocrat-led governments to shift blame and re-establish their credibility and that of their policies in the face of crises that de-legitimise their rule.
