Coalition Government and Committee Policing Strength: New Evidence from 17 European Democracies

What explains the evolution of committee policing strength? Much previous work has linked committee strength to the frequency of coalition government, but empirical analysis in this area has been hampered by a paucity of systematic data on longitudinal changes in committee strength. In this paper, I offer a new empirical test using a novel time series of committee policing strength in 17 western and east-central European democracies since 1945 (or democratisation). My findings contribute to our understanding of legislative institutions and institutional change in parliamentary democracies.