- Jan 3, 2012
- 16,653
Coalitions seem to work for Germany, and the allies forced proportional representation on them after the end of WW2.I honestly don’t see it that way. I would argue that single party governments often get drunk on their own power, and coalitions check the largest party from unleashing unpopular policies/vanity projects on the public without too much scrutiny.
The whole art of politics is meant to be compromise, it’s only in the U.K. and US that it’s entirely childish and adversarial. Our electoral system encourages these bizarre excesses, it leads to attention seeking children being given positions of power.
What coalitions do is force parties to find common ground. It’s possible for that to lead to better policy than a single party unchecked. Neither Labour or Liberal parties want to fail, through self-interest if nothing else. If it happens, they’ll find a way.