Professor Catherine de Vries on whether European-style coalitions could prevent a government shutdown

Catherine de Vries was quoted in Bloomberg Businessweek (17 October) in an online article on how European governments tend to deal with the same problems that caused the recent government shutdown in the United States. The article is entitled Europe Has Tea Parties, Too. Theyve Just Learned to Compromise.

In it Catherine says that voters in coalition-run countries are familiar with the process of coalitions agreeing on a platform before forming a government together, and are therefore more amenable to compromise as the price of power. Im not saying this always works perfectly, she adds, but you see the harsh edges of political parties go off when theyve been in formal coalition negotiations.

The full article can be read here: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-17/europes-ideological-parties-must-compromise-or-be-frozen-out-of-power