Parties in Government: Incumbency and Representation in Parliamentary Democracies

[150 words] In spite of electoral change since the 1990s, party composition of government changes less and established parties stay in office longer than others regardless their electoral fortunes. This development is conducive to incongruence between the changing pattern of parties represented in parliament and those getting into government. It is argued that office seeking behaviour has become more prominent, resulting in dominant (strongest parliamentary party) and parties occupying the ‘centre’ are more often and longer incumbent than others. If dominance and centrality is simultaneously combined in one party, a “pivot party” emerges. This type of party is indeed characterized by prolonged incumbency of government. This development and the emergence of pivot parties in government is analysed for 16 West European democracies (comparing the period before and after 1990). I claim that indeed a representative bias emerges which could signify an change in the representative quality of representative government in Western Europe.