Coalition government
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| God Save the Queen? |
A coalition government is what sometimes happens in a multi-party state when no single party has a majority representation following an election.
Countries with a two party system [1] rarely have any reason for coalition. A small third party or parties might, however, take up some of the slack between the major parties resulting in a hung legislature with neither having sufficient representatives to definitively control the government. The third (fourth... etc) party might then assume more power than justified by its share of the vote by demanding concessions from one or other of the two main parties to form a coalition.
Coalitions are more common in countries that do not use the "first past the post" system to elect legislators as often more minority parties have a respectable number of electees.
In some countries, such as Israel, with many represented parties, coalitions are the norm, rather than the exception.
[edit] UK Coalition 2010
In the UK, following the 2010 election[2], the make up of the main legislative body, the House of Commons, was:
| Party | Number of MPs |
|---|---|
| Conservative | 306 |
| Labour | 258 |
| Liberal Democrat | 57 |
| DUP | 8 |
| SNP | 6 |
| Sinn Fein | 5 |
| Plaid Cymru | 3 |
| SDLP | 3 |
| Alliance | 1 |
| English Greens | 1 |
Although the Conservative Party and its allies had the largest number of seats, the did not have an overall majority. Following a considerable amount of horse trading (presumably) over some four or so days, the Liberal Democrats agreed to form a coalition with the Conservatives despite their extreme differences on some matters.