Parliaments and Government Formation: Unpacking Investiture Rules goes forward from a simple dichotomy between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ parliamentarism in exploring government formation rules. To date, and perhaps surprisingly, scholars have paid little attention to formal procedures determining government formation processes. The volume edited by Bjørn Erik Rasch, Shane Martin, and José Antonio Cheibub seeks to fill this gap by focusing solely on investiture rules. Essentially, the aim of the book is to examine them, explore their variation, and discuss how they impact on the occurrence of minority governments. In doing so, the book relies largely on 16 case studies. The selected cases cover a wide range of countries, including those with relatively strong parliaments in terms of voting governments into office, but where minority governments still emerge.

The book is divided into five parts. Part I consists of a single chapter in which the editors discuss previous scholarship and pinpoint the gaps within it, explain why parliamentary rules may account for the rate of minority governments, and outline the analytical framework – namely it identifies what the investiture vote is (and is not), and uncover its empirical variation. Part II seeks to reveal how the investiture vote varies in four countries, including the United Kingdom, where ‘a hidden vote of investiture’ can be observed. The editors have also decided to include a chapter which discusses how the European Parliament is engaged in choosing Commissioners. Part III is the largest one with eight countries under scrutiny. Its main objective is to study the link between investiture rules and the occurrences of minority governments. Each chapter follows a common structure. First, a rationale for including the country under review for the purpose of studying government formation rules is given. Second, a brief outline of how each parliament in an individual country works together with how it is organized is explained, and a sketch of party system and coalition formation is provided. Third, a detailed description as to how parliament invest government is presented. This section also gives information on the sources (e.g. constitution, practice of the investiture rules), and sketches solutions important for understanding of the making and breaking of governments in the country under scrutiny. Part IV consists of two chapters. The first is the only truly comparative chapter, in which the relationships between investiture vote and cabinet removal procedures are uncovered. The concluding chapter seeks to summarise the most important findings. Overall, the order of the chapters is correct and allows for comfortable reading. Worth nothing is that a common structure of country-chapters allows the reader to easily compare issues covered in the book among individual countries, and the analytical framework set out in the introductory chapter is consistently employed.

As to the main findings, the book finds that the key investiture rules have been stable over recent decades, however, some countries with Belgium being a prime example, tend to alter these more frequently. In other words, institutions would seems to little matter. A striking finding is that the presence of an investiture vote has no effect on making minority governments more likely. This comes as a surprise since the link between the requirement for investing governments with smaller number of minority governments has been largely taken for granted in scholarship. Building on individual case studies, the book plausibly seeks to account for the ability of minority governments to win the investiture vote. First, opposition parties are prone to support minority governments in return for policy concessions and influence. Second, minority governments may buy support from MPs in exchange for appointments to positions in the public sphere or by pork barrel politics. Third, some mechanisms may permit cabinet survival, despite changes in its composition leading to losing its majority. This is the case of countries where no new investiture vote is required after coalition partners choose to exit government and in consequence the composition of ministers is changed. As an important theoretical contribution Parliaments and Government Formation uncovers cross-national variation in six aspects of an investiture votes. These include: (1) the number of chambers entailed in case of bicameral parliament, (2) the subject of the vote (prime minister, government composition, policy programme), (3) the timing of the vote during the government formation process, (4) the decision rule (type of majority), (5) the number of rounds, (6) the consequences of a failure to invest government. Interestingly, no dimension of investiture votes can be predicted based on knowledge of other aspects. In other words, no clear patterns emerge as to institutional combinations of the six specific dimensions of investiture mechanisms.

If there were one (small) criticism to make, it would be that Figure 19 (p. 338) suggests that the subject of the investiture vote in Poland is solely based on cabinet composition. However, Art. 154(2) of the Polish constitution stipulates that ‘The Prime Minister shall [. . .] submit a programme of activity of the Council of Ministers [i.e. cabinet] to the Sejm [i.e. the lower chamber of parliament], together with a motion requiring a vote of confidence [i.e. investiture vote]’. This passage arguably shows that its policy programme is voted on rather than being based on cabinet composition. The same goes for the so-called Small Constitution of 1992.

To conclude, the volume succeeds in explaining investiture rules and it should be considered as a ‘must-read’ for scholars interested in contemporary parliamentarism and government formation. It deals with under-studied areas, and through its focus on variation of investiture rules generates important new knowledge about the link between the investiture vote and the emergence of minority governments. The main strength of the volume lies in the introductory, concluding and comparative chapters. To be sure, all case studies are well presented and analysed in-depth, but it is, among other things, its analytical and conceptual rigour that forms the basis for the future research. With its clear language, it is suitable not only for scholars but also for graduate students and journalists, and it will be of particular use for those who are new to the field. The book gives readers a well-grounded point of departure for future research – one I hope the editors continue.