Coalition Governments

The Economist, a conservative weekly British weekly newspaper, recently featured a very interesting article on mergers of companies. Inspired by the opposition and subsequent failure of the Pfizer Astra-Zeneca takeover, it sought to explain why so many seemingly ideal mergers often collapsed so quickly. It concluded that mergers where there was no clear dominant party, or where insufficient takeover plans were implemented were doomed to fail almost right from the start. Bosses of companies would invariably clash over who had more control and thus handed the impetus to their competitors.

This line of thinking could have easily been extended to include the political hemisphere. Political mergers, or coalitions as they are called, are common in democracies, yet one would have to wonder why. Often times they are a necessity, but they almost all invariably result in failure. It should be noted for that the purposes of this analysis, we shall deem there to be two instances were a coalition fails. The first is where it breaks down leading to a change in government or a snap election. In modern, Western democracies this is relatively rare. While it certainly does happen, most parties realise that it will only end up hurting their interests and so try to avoid this outcome if at all possible. The second possibility of failure is whereby one party, as a direct result of the coalition, becomes so unpopular as to lose so many seats in the next election that they make the continuation of the coalition impossible.

This is a very common outcome, and has happened an extraordinary number of times in recent years. The reasons are simple. Inevitably, one party in the coalition will be larger than the other. This larger party therefore gets the key posts in the new government and becomes the face of the country’s leadership. The smaller party, having less of a mandate and being more replaceable, is bullied into implementing the policies of its partner. The smaller party is seen by those who voted for them to have betrayed their principles and subsequently get walloped at the polls.This happens in all democracies, no matter the country.  In Ireland the Greens, after supporting the unpopular Fianna Fáil, lost all their seats at the next election, as did the Progressive Democrats in the election before that. The Lib Dems in Britain are almost certain to be decimated in the next election, while their partners, the Conservatives  could yet remain in power. Looking towards Germany, the Social Democrats and the Free Democratic Party were trounced after having supported Angela Merkel’s party, the CDU.

Coalitions therefore, are likely to fail. Politicians surely know this and so it must be asked, why enter one in the first place? The simple fact is that the whole point of being in politics is to have power. While the opposition can make a lot of noise from their benches, the reality is that until they are in government, they have no true power. It is often better for a party which will clearly never win a majority to enter into coalition, as that way they shall at least be able to enact some of their policies. While they are aware that in the long run they may lose support, being in a coalition government is often the lesser of two evils.

What advice can we give to the smaller parties of coalitions? If at all possible, only go into coalition with those parties who are on the same side of the political spectrum as yourself. The main goal is to ensure your policies are enacted. This means choosing the ministries which give you the most opportunity to do this. For liberals, this means departments such as Health, Education, Social Welfare etc. Greens should aim for the environment and energy. Agriculture, Immigration and Defence tend to appeal more to the right-wing vote and so their parties should demand these positions. While the economic well-being of the country is very important to all citizens, the largest party is never going to give up control of the Treasury and so it is pointless to demand it. A key mistake to avoid is to accept the position of deputy prime minister. Unlike vice-president, this is a rather pointless position and usually only serves the purpose as to make the leader of your party seem like a lackey of his larger coalition partner.

Coalitions are popular in Democracies, and will continue to be so although more from necessity than desire. They are prone to failure and can lead to fractious governments. However, so long as all parties to the coalition can reach a compromise and ensure that their policies are all being enacted in some way, then they succeed. It is a difficult task yes, but not impossible.