Department of Political and Social Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University

Next wednesday, 13 May at 15:00h.

Room 40.244. Roger de Llúria Building (Barcelona)

Bonnie Field (Bentley University)

will present “Minority Government and Multilevel Territorial Politics: Spain in Comparative Perspective”

Abstract:

Bonnie Field will provide an overview of her forthcoming book, Why Minority Government’s Work: Multilevel Territorial Politics in Spain. The book offers an explanatory framework for understanding minority government performance that includes the design of political institutions, the reconcilability of party goals and the contingent partisan bargaining circumstances, all of which are understood in multilevel perspective where relevant. The utility of the framework is demonstrated through an in depth empirical examination of governments in Spain, and Spain is placed in comparative perspective. It argues that Spain’s minority governments have been effective in part because the political institutions and contingent partisan bargaining circumstances tended to strengthen the government’s bargaining position. Moreover, the goals of Spain’s statewide governing parties and regional parties were distinct yet often reconcilable, fostering cooperation during minority governments.
 

Short bio:

Bonnie N. Field (Ph.D. in political science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002) is Associate Professor of Global Studies at Bentley University (Massachusetts, USA). She is an Affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard, a Visiting Researcher at the University of Barcelona, Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, Visiting Fellow at UCI's Center for the Study of Democracy, and Fulbright Senior Researcher in Spain. Her research focuses on political parties, political institutions, and regime democratization in Europe and Latin America. She has published in Comparative Politics, Comparative
Political Studies, Party Politics, Democratization, South European Society & Politics, Electoral Studies, and PS: Political Science and Politics, amongst other journals. She is the editor of Politics and Society in
Contemporary Spain: From Zapatero to Rajoy (with Alfonso Botti, Palgrave 2013), Spain's 'Second Transition'? The Socialist Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Routledge 2011) and Democracy and Institutional Development: Spain in Comparative Theoretical Perspective (with Kerstin Hamann, Palgrave 2008).

Coordination: Guillermo Cordero (guillermo.cordero@upf.edu)