Ventajas de los acrocastells

Every study has its inherent limitations and this research contains several factors that render the study atypical. The main limitation pertains to my personal involvement as researcher. Further, the research is time sensitive. My background as an MP for two of the three parliamentary terms under discussion provides an inherent bias. But, my personal involvement added certain advantages that non-participant researchers would have been unable to claim.

I interviewed many of my former political colleagues from both the Government and the Opposition. It is accepted that key informants can have a vested interest in their observations. Participant observations have been provided from personal memories and notes of events and the fact that they are mainly recollections might provide a further limitation on the confidence that can be placed on the accuracy, reliability or validity of the findings of this research. The topic chosen is one that is of particular interest to me and so it is impossible to prevent some level of bias distorting the analysis of findings (Berg, 2001). There are reservations about participant observation but the triangulation of methods has assisted in reducing any inherent bias.

This research should be read mindful of the inherent limitations of the study’s timeframe. The study was conducted over three parliamentary terms and involved specific parties and actors. Different coalition scenarios involving changed political actors, attributes and constraints would probably yield a variety of results; equally valid for those occasions.

However, in this context there were two main advantages that contributed to a deeper understanding of the material. The first was that as a former Member of Parliament I was able to gain access to key politicians and officials that might have been denied to other students. Secondly, I was a Member of Parliament during two of the terms under study, therefore I was able to understand the subtleties and nuances of the interview material and where necessary place it within a broader context. Also, my experiences as an MP helped me to look beyond the immediate implication of the information that was provided and sometimes probed deeper in the questioning. In addition, this research has been extensive, was triangulated and is based on material gained from many of the main political actors of the time under study. As such, this study provides a unique

contribution to our understanding of coalition government that could not have been gained from other methods.

Summary

This chapter has outlined the methodological approach of systems theory and described why a qualitative research method was chosen. It has also detailed the role of the researcher in Parliament, the use of semi-structured interviews of key informants and the use of primary documents to fill in any gaps. The next stage is the use of these tools to develop the case studies. The first chapter in this important section relies mainly on secondary data. It does not form a substantive part of the main research but is useful nonetheless. The period under study is the MMP years of 1996 to 2005. However, the parliamentary term of 1993 to 1996 was in effect a practice run for MMP. I have included this summary because that Parliament laid the framework under which future MMP parliaments were to operate.

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Chapter 6: The Lead-up to MMP –1993-1996

The parliamentary term between 1993 and 1996 appeared to be a practice run for an MMP Parliament. That period was a volatile time that saw several splinter parties form and reform and the emergence of a First Past the Post coalition government. This chapter provides a brief chronological outline of the relevant political events between 1993 and the 1996 general election. Although the period in the lead up to the 1996 general election was outside this study’s timeframe, I considered it important to provide a background to the events of the first MMP government. This parliamentary term provided the New Zealand Parliament and MPs with crucial experience in coalition negotiations and management. This was also a time when the established parties amended the rules of the House in preparation of the incoming system. While some MPs adjusted to MMP as a way of individual survival, others tried to ensure the superiority of the two main parties continued into the next parliamentary term. Still other politicians embraced MMP as providing a new form of consensual government. The composition of the New Zealand Parliament elected in 1993 underscored the degree to which the country remained a textbook example of a two-party system (Boston et al., 1996). Yet, between November 1993 and the 1996 elections, there were seven different government arrangements. These seven configurations can be simplified into four separate periods of majority or minority governments. Although the National Party was the major party in each composition, it had to rely on the support of various MPs that departed from both the Labour and National parties during the 1993-96 parliamentary term. The large number of changes coupled with the fact that some MPs changed or reformed their parties several times guaranteed that this period appears confusing. However, as an immediate precursor to this study, this parliamentary term provides some important and interesting instances of multi-party arrangements in action during what was still a FPP Parliament. The different compositions of government are discussed in turn.

National narrowly won the 1993 general election with 50 MPs and became a majority single-party government. The opposition entered Parliament with Labour having 45 MPs and NZ First, two. On election night, the Alliance’s two MPs, noting the close

contest and fearing a potentially unstable government promised to support the largest party on confidence and supply (TV One, 1993). Although, this support was highly conditional, it did provide National’s leader, Jim Bolger, with the confidence to form a majority government that continued until the middle of 1995.21