Coalition Termination in Norway: Models and Cases

This article focuses on coalition termination in Norway and explores the questions: Which issues are severe enough to bring down a coalition government? To what extent are coalition crises caused by a complex bargaining environment? On the basis of a unified model for government solution, three cases are examined: the termination of Borten II in 1971, Willoch III in 1986, and Syse in 1990. The analysis demonstrates that the complexity of the bargaining environment is conditioned by the dimensionality of the party system. The stability of coalitions is restricted by the cleavage structure and the ideological diversity of the system, as parties are polarized along several conflict dimensions. Terminal issues are fundamentally related to the parties' position in the policy space. In order to preserve party identity and unity, political parties change from a cooperative to a competitive strategy when issues belonging to the “heartland” of the parties concerned become salient.     

Case-Based Deliberation in Cases of Child Abuse: an Innovative Way to Cooperate Between Justice and Care

A lack of communication between care workers, police officers, judicial officials and medical professionals can obstruct a fast and efficient approach of child abuse. This problem inspired a pilot project called ‘the Courage Protocol’, which was introduced as an experiment in the legal district of Antwerp, Flanders (Belgium). The most important novelty in this project is the case-based deliberation between care workers, medical professionals and judiciary officials, as this implies an actual encounter between these representatives in which relevant information is shared and possible ways to approach specific cases are discussed. Based on a scientific evaluation of this deliberative practice, this article discusses its potential as an innovative way of cooperation between justice and care.