Because 1991 was not an election year, it tended also to be a year without political issues of a specific kind. The Hawke Labor government had been re-elected at the general election held on 24 March 1990 and looked forward to a full term of three years. Towards the end of 1990, however, two general concerns emerged which were to dominate political debate in 1991.

The first was the official admission of the existence of an economic recession. On 29 November 1990, the then Treasurer, Paul Keating, commented on the release of national accounts figures and admitted that negative growth of the economy amounted to a recession. He then used an unfortunate, if memorable, phrase.

No constitutional amendments were made in 1991 and changes of the state institutions were restricted to a reshuffle of ministerial competences resulting from the coalition negotiations between the SPÖ and the ÖVP in late 1990 (Bundesgesetzblatt 45/1991). However, the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer) and the Chamber of Business (Bundeswirtschuftskummer) were reformed by public law (Bundesgesetzblatt 626/1992 and 620/1992 respectively). Both chambers and the Chamber of Labour in particular had been exposed to criticism from their members and the general public because of poor services to their members (which have no exit option) and cases of corruption. The aim of the reforms was to increase the accountability of the leadership of the chambers and to provide better services to the members, and hence to increase their legitimacy and to enable the maintenance of the Austrian chamber system.

The election campaign of November 1991 was distinguished by the way in which the centre-left coalition - the country's 36th government since 1944 - had disintegrated in acrimony and abuse (Financial Times, 22 November 1991), and, except for two important features, was also pretty colourless. The first of these features was a continuation of the Flemish/Walloon bickering, with quite strong nationalistic rhetoric on both sides as politicians sought to convince the electors that they had been and would be staunch defenders of the interests of their linguistic community and region. The second was an appeal to, and an exploitation of racist and anti-immigration feelings. This was not restricted only to the extreme right parties and groups, since certain candidates from the mainstream parties - in particular the PRL in Brussels - chose not to be outdone on this ground, adopting some outrageously xenophobic rhetoric, posters and slogans, and thus indirectly ceding credibility to right wing extremism.

However much public opinion polls might have suggested that Canadians were primarily concerned with economic issues in 1991, national politics was in fact dominated by constitutional questions. In particular this was focused on (predominantly) French-speaking Quebec's place in the federation after the collapse, in mid 1990, of the 1987 Meech Lake Accord. That agreement had sought to rewrite the constitution in a fashion that would have recognized Quebec as a distinct society and won that province's accession to the 1982 Constitution Act.

At the start of 1991, the coalition of Civic Forum (OF) and Public Against Violence (VPN) had an absolute majority in the Czechoslovak (CSFR) Federal Assembly. (OF took 118 and VPN took 52 out of the total number of 300 parliamentary seats, i.e. 56.6%). In the course of 1991, the distribution of political forces in parliament changed. But in the winning coalition, a sifting-out of various currents of opinion after the 1990 parliamentary elections could already be seen. Two main ideas for OF's future development came through. The first of these was the right-wing conservative viewpoint represented by Vclav Klaus (CSFR Finance Minister), advocating the formation from OF of a party compact in its organisation, and with its own individual membership and a professional apparatus.

As a consequence of the electoral defeat at the general election in December 1990, the Social Liberals (RV) withdrew from the triparite minority government which it had formed with the Conservatives (KF) and the Liberals (V). A further consequence of the defeat was that the political leader of the RV, Niels Nelveg Petersen, was replaced by Marianne Jelved. The chairman of the RV national organization also announced his retirement, and was replaced by Grethe Erichsen at the party conference in September. The RV thus became the first Danish party with a wholly female leadership. The chairman of the Socialist People's Party (SF), Gert Petersen, as well as the chairman of the party's parliamentary group, Ebba Strange, were replaced by younger people, Holger K. Nielsen and Steen Gade respectively. The electoral loss of nine seats had thus triggered the long expected generational change in the SF.

Issues in the campaign. In contrast to elections in the past, the 1991 electoral campaign was heavily influenced by an international conflict with no politicized connections to the internal Finnish political arena. As a consequence, just as the political intensity was increasing at the outset of the campaign, media and general interest were both distracted, with the outbreak of the Gulf War switching attention away from the campaign in the cold north and towards the hot battle fields of Kuwait. There was little sign of any sustained attempt to relaunch the campaign and the silent party contest continued to the very end of the war. The big losers in this process were of course the parties, in that they failed to provide the main focus for media interest.

In accordance with the terms of Article 8 of the Constitution, which grants the President of the Republic the responsibility of appointing the Prime Minister and of terminating his or her office, Franois Mitterrand requested the resignation of Prime Minister Michel Rocard on 15 May 1991. Since his nomination in May 1988, the Prime Minister had been strongly supported by French public opinion and, after three years in office, he still remained popular with the electorate. However, he has never been so popular with the President and a large part of the Socialist Party (PS), due to the fact that he was not a Mitterrandist and that, since first joining the party in 1974, he had led a tendency which questioned many of the socialist policies, particularly in the economic arena.

The formation of the new Christian-Liberal coalition government followed the first all-German elections, which were held on 2 December 1990, and which had resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Kohl government. However, despite Kohl's skilful handling of unification, his own Christian Democratic party (CDU) party did not reap much of the electoral benefit and achieved a rather disappointing 44.1 percent of the vote in the old Federal Republic (excluding West Berlin). This was the party's lowest share of the vote since 1949. Clearly, the Liberals (FDP) were strategically better placed, being able to capitalize on the (partially self-induced) predictions of an overall Christian Democratic majority - something notoriously disliked by German voters.

Despite the country's mounting economic and security problems, the issue which actually dominated national politics throughout 1991 was the trial before the Special Court of former Prime Minister A. Papandreou and three of his ministers (including his deputy, A. Koutsogiorgas) on charges of bribery and other crimes stemming from the Koskotas banking scandal. Shown completely on TV, the trial, which started in March, proved the most popular serial of the year and was marked by several coups de thtre. To begin with, Papandreou refused to appear in court and was tried in absentia. The charges against him were also severely undermined by the first witness.

The new Hungarian cabinet has been in power since 23 May 1990, following the first free elections since 1945. In addition to some expert appointments, three parties are represented as members of the governing coalition: the Hungarian Democratic Forum (Magyar Demokrata Frum, MDF), the Independent Smallholders Party (Fggetlen Kisguzdapurt, FKGP) and the Christian Democratic People's Party (Keresztnydernokruta Npprt, KDNP). The Prime Minister, Jzsef Antall, is the party leader of the largest party in parliament, the MDF, and has been in power since the cabinet first took office.

After three decades of electoral stablity, characterized by the domination of the four old Icelandic parties and small fluctuations at the polls, the 1970s and the 1980s proved to be a period of increasing volatility in Icelandic politics. All of the old parties suffered internal difficulties, and four new parliamentary parties emerged. By comparison, only one new party had obtained representation in the Althingi in the period 1942-1967. The only one of the new parties to survive more than two elections, however, has been the Women's Alliance (WA).

The context for the year was set by the unprecedented victory in the Presidential election of November 1990 of Mary Robinson, an independent, liberal candidate, who had been nominated by the Labour Party and was supported by the other parties of the broad left. The major political question at the start of 1991 concerned the response of the parties to this development. Which parties, if any, would succeed in attracting the support of this liberal constituency?

On 5 February 1991 the Knesset approved, by a vote of 61 to 54, the nomination of Rehavam (Gandhi) Zeevy of the Moledet (Homeland) party as Minister Without Portfolio. The participation of Zeevy in the cabinet raised the number of Ministers to 20. In addition, 12 members of the Knesset (and later 13 MKs) served as Deputy Ministers. Following the participation of Zeevy's Moledet with its two MKs in the coalition, the cabinet enjoyed the support of 66 out of the 120 Knesset members. Thus, all the right-wing hawkish parties and all the religious parties were united in backing the coalition.

Changes in the party composition of the Senuto dellu Repubblicu normally occur only as a consequence of elections which are held jointly with those for the Lower Chamber (Camera dei Depututi). In 1991, however, a major change did occur as a result of the demise of the Purtito Comunistu Ituliuno (PCI) and the birth of the Purtito Democratic0 dellu Sinistru (Democratic Party of the Left - PDS) and of the Rifonduzione Comunistu (Communist Refoundation - RC).

On 5 October 1991, at a press conference, Prime Minister Mr. Toshiki Kaifu expressed his intention not to run for the party presidential election which was scheduled to be held at the end of October. Mr Kaifu, who was elected to be Prime Minister on 9 August 1989, was keen to change the electoral system of the House of Representatives (Lower House) as a main component of the agenda of political reform which his cabinet would like to carry out after the disclosure of The Recruit Scandal in 1988, in which almost all senior fraction leaders in the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party profitted by selling the stocks of the Recruit Cosmos Company Limited on the Japanese stock market.

The fiscal reform adopted by Parliament in December 1990 proved a major point of contention throughout 1991. Although it offered substantial tax breaks to most tax-payers, it increased the tax burden on widowers and widows, divorcees, and one-parent families, thus offering the Liberal opposition the welcome opportunity to criticise the ideological approach taken by the ruling coalition towards fiscal matters. An additional controversial matter in the fiscal arena was the decision by the Government in June 1991 to anticipate increases in VAT from 12 to 15 per cent as of 1 January 1992, following the harmonisation at EC level. Opposition parties claimed that this move annihilated for all practical purposes the beneficial effects of the recent tax reform.

In its fourth year in office, the Nationalist (conservative) Government proceeded on its path of economic liberalisation coupled with increased public spending. These and related subjects continued to be the main issues in Maltese politics, since they represent a major policy departure from the economic policies pursued during the previous sixteen years of Labour Government. The Government held that, in contrast with previous protectionist and often austere policies, liberalisation increased consumer choice, raised the quality of life, motivated local manufacturers to compete with foreign products, and put the country on the path towards future membership of the EC.

Members of the First Chamber, the upper house of the Dutch parliament, are elected by members of the Provincial State councils. Following the elections to the Provincial States on 6 March 1991, the First Chamber was dissolved, and on 27 May 1991, a new chamber was elected (see Table 1).