ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the five Scandinavian countries in relation to cabinet formation, cabinet type, cabinet stability and ministerial turnover. It provides the similarities and differences between these countries. Finland is an outlier due to its frequent oversized majority coalition governments. Similarly, Iceland can be viewed as an outlier due to its frequent majority coalitions. Denmark has had very few majority governments and is accustomed to minority coalitions, although the general election in 2015 returned a single-party minority government with the least parliamentary support of any government since 1973. Sweden has also had many single-party minority governments, mostly formed by the Social Democrats. Indeed, the 2014 election was the first time that the Social Democrats had formed a coalition government. Very knowledgeable researchers almost spelled the end of coalition governments in Norway around 2000, albeit their demise might have been predicted a tad too early, as all of the cabinets in Norway since 2001 have been of the coalition type.
