ABSTRACT
In Slovakia, the growing success of new parties with anti-corruption, anti-establishment, and populist appeals has disrupted the previous pattern of alternations of the blocks of right-wing and left-wing coalitions. However, the heterogeneity and participation of many new parties in government coalitions have not hindered cabinet formation and the establishment of coalition agreements. We can also observe a stabilization of the rules and functioning patterns of coalition government, which are in line with the Ministerial Government Model. Coalition governments are based on the existence of a public coalition agreement signed by the party leaders, which explicitly determines the allocation of offices, the management of coalition relations, and the settlement of disputes through the institution of the coalition council. This process of stabilization of the rules and mechanisms of the functioning of coalitions was not significantly affected by the events of the financial or migration crisis, which hit Slovakia only to a limited extent and are not even associated with changes in the quality of democracy. On the contrary, the pandemic provided an opportunity for the temporary dominance of the prime minister and thus disrupted a gradual establishment of more of a coalition governance model.
