Coalition politics

Mairead Finley (Jan 2012.) in her presentation On Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Coalition Government.”  The Author said  that a coalition government consists of two or more parties who must compromise on principles and share a mandate. This mostly occurs due to a single party unable to gain a majority of seats in parliament Coalitions are mostly formed through elections but coalition governments can also occur in times of national difficulty,

Coalition governments  arguably divide opinion, but those in favour of proportional representation believe it can lead to consensus politics, and it is also seen by many as the more favourable option in times of national crisis, moreover, coalitions can also be better than having a minority government.

However, many believe that they are undemocratic and can lead to drastic policies being put through, upon a mandate that was not agreed on, with problems also on proportionality.

To determine a conclusion to this issue, it is important to explore the advantages and  disadvantages of such an understanding,

Advantages

-It leads to broader representation, as the two parties have to compromise on their opposing ideologies in order to create policies that result in legislation.

- Greater policy scrutiny is also prominent in coalition which could prove beneficial for the electorate as this should in theory benefit a larger proportion of individuals than a single party government as, the two opposing parties reflect a broader spectrum of voters.

Disadvantages

Conflict within governance due to conflicting ideologies of the two parties, can make a government fractious whilst also weakening government.

If parties are at a standstill on certain topics and cannot come to quick conclusions, not being able to work together will effect how powerful a coalition  will be as continual disagreements will slow down the progress.

In a coalition politics, individual parties have to compromise on ideologies, however what can also happen is that one party has to abandon their argument entirely, which could be severely damaging to their reputation, and cause fractures within the party and can damage their chances of re-election.

The past history of the parties involved in the collation has an impact of the electorate . It will be idle to go into a coalition with a political party that has a clean record than just to forge an alliance because its election time .