Party-system polarisation, legislative institutions and cabinet survival in 28 parliamentary democracies, 1945–2019

The resurgence of radical and populist parties has stimulated renewed discussions about the resilience parliamentary democracy in Europe. This work contributes to this debate by analysing extent which positive parliamentarism, prime minister’s dissolution powers, government’s power table votes confidence majority requirements for no serve as ‘shock absorbers’ moderating effect ideological polarisation European parliaments. Fitting several Cox Proportional Hazards models data 752 cabinets from 28 democracies between 1945 2019, well-established finding that restrictiveness constructive vote mitigates destabilising strong extreme on non-electoral cabinet replacements is confirmed. More counter-intuitively, absence parliamentarism reduces risk when ideologically are strong.