Articles by Wolfgang C Müller

May 8, 2025

Coalition bargaining failures lead to more productive cabinets

Wolfgang C Müller

Austrian parties have finally formed a new government – on their third bargaining attempt. The failure of the previous rounds drew media criticism of timewasting. But Matthew E Bergman and Wolfgang C Müller argue that time spent bargaining is in fact an investment in future government policy productivity

Are parties wasting time negotiating coalition deals?

Wolfgang C Müller

Recent elections in several countries have produced inconclusive outcomes. This has resulted in extended periods of bargaining between parties to determine the next government. Matthew E Bergman, Hanna Bäck, and Wolfgang C Müller argue that contrary to conventional wisdom, long bargaining periods might actually be a constructive investment in future productivity

Wolfgang C Müller

Professor of Political Science, Department of Government, University of Vienna

Wolfgang is retired from teaching and administration.

He directs four funded research projects and is editor of the journal West European Politics.

Previous to holding the professorship of Democratic Governance at the University of Vienna, he held the Comparative Government chair at the University of Mannheim and served as Director of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), one of the most important German social science research institutes and one of the world’s leading centres of research on European politics.

As visiting professor he taught at the Humboldt University, the University of California, San Diego, the University of Mannheim, and the Institute d’Études Politiques de Lille (SciencesPo Lille).

Wolfgang has held research fellowships at the University of Oxford, the University of Bergen, and Harvard University.

He has served as a member of the editorial boards of the Österreichischen Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, European Journal of Political Research, the Journal of European Public Policy, and West European Politics and he is currently a member of the editorial boards of German Politics, Party Politics, Research and Politics (RaP), Swiss Political Science Review, and the Italian Review of Political Science/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica.

From 2008 to 2016 he served as rapporteur for the Social Sciences in the Austrian Research Fund (FWF).

Wolfgang specialises in comparative government and politics, with a special interest in coalition politics, party competition, party politics, political institutions, Austrian politics, and political economy.

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