Dr Petra Schleiter awarded a BA Mid-Career Fellowship to examine how the economys impact on cabinet survival is shaped by Europes constitutional rules

Congratulations to Petra Schleiter, who has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for a project entitled Surviving busts and exploiting booms: the economy, constitutional variation and cabinet survival in Europe.

The project examines the economys impact on cabinet survival as shaped by Europes diverse constitutional rules. The economy can powerfully affect cabinet survival in 2011/12 eight European governments fell as a direct result of the current crisis. Yet, cabinets differ greatly in vulnerability even when we account for their attributes and political contexts. Why? I hypothesize that the constitutional powers of cabinets to manage their own demise shape their capacity to survive busts and exploit booms. Constitutional rules determine by whom and under what conditions cabinet terminations can be triggered. They therefore affect a cabinets capacity to manage its termination risk and its vulnerability to shocks and uncontrolled failure. How the demise of cabinets is managed can have great implications for governability and even civic peace. Combining statistical analyses of cabinets in 30 European democracies (1970-2011) with in-depth case studies, this project promises major advances in understanding cabinet survival that will be of interest to academics and policy-makers.

The fellowship will start on 1 January 2014, and run to 31 December 2014.