This book answers these questions based on extensive interviews with the most important political actors, historical comparisons with previous Swedish experiences, and statistical analyzes of government formation processes in sixteen other countries. The answers are not only to be sought in the most obvious places, such as with the rapid rise of the Sweden Democrats, but also within the Alliance for Sweden, whose previously unique success now created the conditions for its downfall.
Of importance was also the mistrust that initially characterized the negotiations between the parties – the Center Party, the Liberals, the Social Democrats and the Greens -- that eventually managed to reach the “January agreement” that made it possible for the current government to form. The deadlock that led to the longest government formation in Sweden's political history was not constitutional. It was political.
This book will be released October 14 and is authored by Jan Teorell, Hanna Bäck and Johannes Lindvall, Lund University, and Johan Hellström, Umeå University.