ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF COALITION GOVERNMENTS

             A Coalition government consists of two or more parties who must compromise on principles and share a mandate. It mostly occurs due to a single party not being able to gain a majority of seats in parliament. Coalitions are generally formed through elections. However, they can also occur in times of national difficulty such as WWII. Coalition governments have some advantages and disadvantages in terms of their decision-making process and management styles.

            First of all, one of the major advantages of coalitions involve the scope of representation. Sharing a mandate, coalitions lead to broader representation, as the two parties have to compromise on their opposing ideologies in order to create policies that result in legislation.  Moreover a coalition government is more democratic because it represents a broader spectrum of public opinion than the government with one party alone. In almost all coalitions, a majority of citizens voted for the parties which form the government, so their views and interests are represented in political decision-making. If most members of parliament agree  that it is crucial to develop the country, the country gets a stronger government with a majority coalition than a party trying to rule with a minority. In brief, the most effective benefit of coalitions is  wide representation and more democracy.

            Finally, coalition governments have some drawbacks. They don’t provide one party with power to implement their ideas, so the end result is that very few ideas, if any, are implemented because an agreement cannot be reached between parties. This disagreement increases the period of decision-making. Furthermore, there is a great deal of instability within the coalition government. It is important  for coalition governments to set up procedures that can work through conflict and mitigate disputes in order for the coalition government to survive. One of the disadvantages is that  it  cannot take long-term view. Coalition governments may not be  long-term because stability is more difficult with coalitions. Briefly, coalitions are not appropriate for the long-term.

            All in all, coalition governments include not only advantages but also disadvantages. Their main advantage is democracy. Coalitions are formed by elections and are participant-driven. They also have certain drawbacks such as problems with decision-making and instability.