Building Political Agreements in Democracy

This special issue analyzes the factors that influence political conflict and consensus in the parliaments of advanced democracies, with a focus on Spain. The articles in this issue utilize original data on legislation passed since 1977, both at the national level and in regional parliaments, along with surveys of parliamentary elites and citizens, and they present revealing findings. For example, it is shown that parliamentary agreement is more frequent than is generally acknowledged in the media and that, paradoxically, the most divided and fragmented parliaments show a greater tendency to cooperate. However, factors such as increasing affective polarization and populist attitudes among parliamentarians pose significant challenges for the future of legislative agreement.