Coalition Government in Britain: Lessons from Overseas
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COALITION GOVERNMENT IN BRITAIN: LESSONS FROM OVERSEAS Ben Seyd January 2002 The Nuffield foundation is a charitable trust established by Lord Nuffield. Its object is “the advancement of social well-being”. The foundation has long had an interest in social welfare and has supported this project to stimulate public discussion and policy development. The views expressed are, however, those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. ISBN: 1-9039030-8 Published by The Constitution Unit School of Public Policy UCL (University College London) 29/30 Tavistock Square London WC1H 9QU Tel: 020 7679 4977 Fax: 020 7679 4978 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/ © Constitution Unit, UCL 2002 This report is sold subject to the condition that is shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Published January 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES..................................................................................................... 5 SUMMARY OF ISSUES EXPLORED................................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................. 8 The distinction between single party and coalition government................................................ 8 Sources of policy learning............................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 1: Coalition Governments and Elections.................................................................... 23 The decisiveness of elections .......................................................................................................... 23 Electoral identifiability .................................................................................................................... 28 Electoral responsiveness ................................................................................................................. 30 When are coalitions formed?.......................................................................................................... 31 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 2: Forming and Terminating Governments ............................................................... 34 The impact of constitutional rules ................................................................................................. 34 Government formation and termination: Positive and negative parliamentarism ................ 38 Identifying a prime minister........................................................................................................... 41 The dissolution of parliament ........................................................................................................ 50 Enhancing the stability of coalitions: Constitutional options .................................................... 53 Keeping the show on the road: The role of caretaker governments ......................................... 59 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 3: Negotiating a Coalition Government ..................................................................... 63 The negotiating process................................................................................................................... 63 What is negotiated?.......................................................................................................................... 66 Party behaviour in bargaining situations ..................................................................................... 72 Limiting the duration of government formation......................................................................... 74 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 76 CHAPTER 4: The Coalition Agreement.......................................................................................... 77 The functions and use of coalition agreements............................................................................ 77 The content of coalition agreements.............................................................................................. 78 Ensuring compliance with the agreement.................................................................................... 78 The ‘tightness’ of coalition agreements......................................................................................... 83 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 84 CHAPTER 5: Managing Coalition Governments.......................................................................... 86 Coordination via portfolio allocation............................................................................................ 88 Coordination via collective structures .......................................................................................... 91 Coalition management in Scotland and Wales ............................................................................ 94 Coalition management overseas .................................................................................................... 97 Assessment of coalition management models ........................................................................... 112 3 Coalitions as unified or divided entities? ................................................................................... 119 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 122 CHAPTER 6: Running a Minority Government.......................................................................... 124 Minority governments’ legislative strategy ............................................................................... 126 Minority government in Denmark .............................................................................................. 127 Minority government in New Zealand....................................................................................... 130 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 133 CHAPTER 7: Sub-National Coalitions.......................................................................................... 134 Sub-national coalitions in Germany ............................................................................................ 134 Sub-national coalitions in the UK ................................................................................................ 138 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 139 ANNEX 1: Details of study visits and acknowledgements ....................................................... 141 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................... 144 4 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: Single party and coalition governments in Britain, 1900-2000..................................... 8 Box 1: Coalition government in Scotland and Wales ................................................................... 10 Table 1: The transition to coalition government: Key questions ............................................... 14 Table 2: Governments in the four study countries, 1970-2001 .................................................... 18 Table 3: Views on the purpose of elections, Scotland and Wales.............................................. 27 Table 4: The role of elections in government formation in selected west European democracies........................................................................................................................................ 33 Table 5: Rules covering government formation and termination in selected western democracies........................................................................................................................................ 36 Table 6: Rules covering government formation and termination in the UK ........................... 37 Figure 2: ‘Positive’ and ‘negative’ parliamentary rules................................................................ 40 Table 7: The pros and cons of different forms of coalition agreement ..................................... 85 Table 8: Two forms of coalition government ................................................................................. 87 Figure 3: Coordination relationships in coalition governments................................................. 92 Table 9: Features of coalition management .................................................................................. 113 Table 10: Incidence of minority administrations in western Europe, 1945-99....................... 125 Box 2: Britain’s