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

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