THE PROS AND CONS OF COALITION GOVERNMENTS

The simple version

Representative democracy is the most common form of government in the world. In democratic countries there are regular elections. The purpose / aim of the elections is to choose members of parliament. Elections also determine the winning party and this party forms the government. Sometimes no party wins. In this case, team work is necessary. Parties have to work together and form the government. These governments are called coalition governments. There are various advantages and disadvantages of having coalition governments.

It can be said that coalition governments have various advantages.  First of all, coalition governments are more democratic because they represent more political views in parliament. Parties with different opinions have to negotiate: they have to listen to each other, they have to talk to each other and they have to find a solution. The left wing and right wing parties can agree on increasing the minimum wage for instance. The left wing parties want a big increase and the right wing parties want a small increase but they can come to an agreement. If each side is ready to negotiate with each other, coalitions can be successful.

On the other hand, there are also many roadblocks which prevent coalitions from working. First of all, the work of the state should carry on without delay. However, if political parties cannot compromise, they cannot take a decision and everything stops. For example, the nationalist party in Turkey supports the idea of military action against Kurdish minorities whereas left wing parties support negotiations. These views will never change; no agreement will be reached and no solution will be found. As a result, everybody will lose. Another example is long discussions. No negotiations mean everything stops. This means the country suffers economically. For example; employees of Arçelik are protesting because the government has not reached an agreement yet. In short, disagreements can cause serious problems for coalitions.

All in all, in coalitions, two different views have to meet in the middle to find a solution for the common good of the country. Sometimes they can sit at the table and compromise whereas sometimes they cannot because of various reasons. However, they should leave their individual interests to maintain the coalition. Thus, the parliament becomes more democratic and the country benefits.

This essay was written by: BORA BAYRAK and DÜCANE DEMİRTAŞ