Sweden had an election in Sept. 2014 that resulted in a hung parliament, but the Social Democrats were able to cobble together a minority government. Three months later, however, their budget was defeated, and the PM said he’d call for a new election in March 2015. Now it looks like they’ve worked out a deal to avoid that.
Got me wondering: what’s the shortest interval between parliamentary elections in a free, open, multiparty state? Do quick-turnaround elections tend to break for or against the government of the day?
I don’t know if these are the shortest, but Britain in 1974…there was an election on Feb 28 that lead to a hung Parliament. Heath, who was Prime Minister, tried and failed to enter into a coalition with the Liberals, and ended up having to call new elections, which were held on October 10th, and led to a bare Labour majority.
Before that, there was an election that ended in December 1885, with Gladstone PM with a hung Parliment and staying in power in coalition with the Irish nationalists. This fell apart after the Home Rule Bill of 1886 failed, which led to new elections in July.
The shortest period between elections in Canada was in 1979. Elections were held in May, and Parliament first sat in October, with Clark as PM in a minority government. Clark couldn’t pass a budget, a no confidence motion was passed, and elections were held in February 1980.
Theoretically, in the U.K., it could be less than two months. You’d need a week or two for MPs to try to form a governing coalition and fail and then 4-6 weeks for the election campaign.
How do you count? Just between election days? Or between the two first sittings of the resulting Parliaments. Or between the first sitting and dissolving?
In the Canadian example mentioned by Captain Amazing, the reason for the election was that the Liberals’ polling revealed that the popularity of the PC government was plummetting, and therefore it was politically advantageous for the Liberals to oppose the budget, and trigger an election. The two smaller parties were also opposed to the budget, on ideological grounds, so the government fell. (One minor correction to Captain Amazing’s post: there was no need for a non-confidence motion; a defeat on the budget is a non-confidence matter.)
The Liberals’ calculus of the popular mood proved to be accurate, as they were returned to power with a majority. However, given the background to the election, I don’t think you could draw a firm conclusion about whether a quick election cycle tends to favour one side or the other.
That election was one of the most significant in Canadian history, because it gave Trudeau the opportunity to (a) defend Canadian federalism in the first Quebec secession referendum, and (b) introduce the patriation of the Canadian Constitution, including the new amending formula and the Charter of Rights.
Canadian history would have been much different if Clark had managed to stay in power and Trudeau had retired in 1980.
There was also the rather unusual (to modern sensibilities) episode of the 1872 and 1874 federal Canadian elections, with a change of government in-between the elections.
The 1872 election took place between July and October, 1872 (voting back then didn’t occur on a single day). The Conservatives, led by John A Macdonald, won a majority.
Then a major political scandal broke, alleging that the Conservatives took money from a gruop of railway magnates, in exchange for the contract to build the trans-national railway. The scandal bubbled away all through 1873, and Macdonald gradually lost support in the Commons (party discipline was much weaker). He finally lost a non-confidence vote in November, 1873, and he resigned.
The Leader of the Opposition, Alexander Mackenzie, formed a government and then called elections for January, 1874, which he won.
In the post-WWII era, the Netherlands has seen parliamentary elections in subsequent years on more than one occassion (eg 71 and 72, 81 and 82). The shortest interval was between the elections of 15 May 2002 and 22 January 2003. During the intervening nine months, the first Balkenende administration (the shortest serving post-war cabinet) was in office for only 87 days. Balkenende I also claims the shortest serving cabinet minister of all time - junior social affairs minister Philomena Bijlhout resigned 8 hours after the queen appointed her to the cabinet.
This is true, but I think Bob Rae attached an "this house has lost confidence…) amendment to the Budget Bill anyway, which is maybe the way you go about these things, I don’t know.
Were there always elections held between the notoriously short lived post-war Italian governments? Those lasted on average about 9 months, with one only lasting 21 days.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Norway has fixed-term parliaments, but governments can change in between, and have done so, most recently in 2000 when Kjell Magne Bondevik’s first government lost a confidence vote over building a gas power plant. (No, seriously.) This does mean that the new government must get the support of the sitting parliament, which is tricky but not impossible. It leads to both the sitting government and the opposition being extremely careful at going for the nuclear option.
There have been 44 Australian Federal elections since 1901 and only once was the break between polling less than a year (and that was 11 months.)
If a party wins an election and has their mandate obstructed then the PM usually threatens to call an early double dissolution election. The conventional wisdom is that oppositions don’t call that bluff because the electorate expects the government they elected to govern.
Double dissolution triggers require major pieces of legislation to be rejected twice by the Senate. This would take at couple of months to wind it’s course, then a election campaign of min 33 days. So it would be exceptional circumstances for an election to be called within 6 months of the last poll and the Government would be expected to win.
The conventional wisdom gets muddied by the Gillard government after the 2010 election produced a hung parliament. One of the primary demands of the cross benchers who gave Labor the barely workable majority was that the parliament serve it’s full term which it did, battered, bleeding and barely functional that it was.
I think the country would have been better served if fresh elections had been called rather than minority government and I think Gillard would have won if it had been done in early 2011. After that the pendulum swings the other way.
In 2012, Greece had an election on May 6th, then another one on June 17th. I don’t think the parliament elected in May ever actually sat, as the negotiations on forming a government failed.
Maybe not for long. The British coalition goverment changed the Election law to institue a fixed 5 year parliament. The sole reason for this as far as i can tell was to kill constant speculation of the Conservatives going for a snap election in a attempt to gain an overall majority.
Goodbye centuries of British tradition! Mr Cameron want a slightly easier life.:rolleyes:
There has to be an election this year, speculation is already mounting. Give it a few more cycles and we’ll have our own hellish 18 month campaign.
Two Italian MPs are sitting on the back benches, very bored, as a parliamentary debate drones on around them. One says, “I think I’ll take a little nap.”
The other nods. “Of course, Giorgio.”
Awhile later, Giorgio wakes up, looks at the clock and is surprised to see that nearly an hour has passed. He stretches and yawns. “Did I miss anything?” he asks his seatmate.
“Not much,” the other man says. “But you were Prime Minister twice.”
I agree that it would normally be rejection of major legislation that would prompt a government to seek a double dissolution. But it’s not a requirement that the legislation be major (however defined). Any bill, twice rejected, will suffice.
Poking around in some of the Canadian provincial election pages on wiki, I found that in Newfoundland, there was an election on October 28, 1971, which returned a hung Parliament: PCs, 21; Liberals, 20; Labrador Party, 1. The Liberals stayed on for a couple of months after the election, but ultimately resigned in January, 1972. The PCs took office, but given the composition of the Assembly, it was very unstable, and the PC premier ultimately advised a dissolution. The next election was on March 24, 1972, which the PCs won.
So, less than five months between two elections, with a result of tossing out a long-entrenched Liberal government (the Liberals had been in power since Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949).
There was a similar short gap between the Newfoundland elections of 1923 and 1924: looks like the government fell apart over corruption allegations, ultimately resulting in an election just over a year later.