Making coalition government work

For the first time in over 60 years, the UK is governed by a coalition government. Ministers from two rival parties are sitting together around the Cabinet table, with a published Programme for Government (PDF, 476KB) setting out a shared policy agenda for a full five-year parliamentary term.

Although the possibility of a hung parliament was recognised before the election – not least in our reports on multi-party governance and preparing for changes of government (see below) – few had predicted or prepared for a full Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

There have of course been power sharing arrangements in local authorities, and coalition governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But surprisingly little has been written about the practicalities of how to make coalition government work at Westminster.

Reports on coalition government republished

In many respects we are now in uncharted waters. That is why we are republishing two Constitution Unit reports that first appeared in 2002 and 2004.

With funding from the Nuffield Foundation, Dr Ben Seyd conducted a two year research project to learn the lessons of coalition government from overseas. He visited Denmark, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand, and interviewed 70 politicians, officials and other experts.

• Coalition Government in Britain: Lessons from Overseas (PDF, 970KB) was published in Jan 2002. The principal audience for this report was the coalition governments in Scotland and Wales, but many of its lessons apply equally to the new coalition at Westminster.  
• Coalition Governance in Scotland and Wales (PDF, 640KB) is a supplementary report published in May 2004, after Dr Seyd revisited Scotland and Wales to capture the lessons of coalition government there.

We thank Dr Seyd for permission to republish his excellent work. 

Rough Guide to Coalition Government

We have summarised some of the most relevant practical lessons from Dr Seyd’s reports in a Rough Guide to Coalition Government (PDF, 70KB). It highlights the need for:

• mutual trust and understanding between the coalition partners, especially the leaders
• formal procedures for information sharing, and signing off policy proposals by both coalition partners
• additional resources for the Deputy Prime Minister, who will be central to joint signing off arrangements
• decentralised coalition coordination to departments, to avoid bottlenecks at the centres
• dispute resolution procedures, possibly including a formal coalition committee
• a pool of trusted special advisers to help resolve coalition management issues, at the centre and in departments.

Making Coalitions Work seminar series

We have hosted a series of events on the challenges of making multi-party government work:

• 21 May - Lessons for Senior Civil Servants from Holland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
• 2 June - The challenges the coalition faces implementing its political reforms
• 1 July - How the media is coping with the 'New Politics'
• 8 July - The impact of the coalition on Parliament
• 16 July - The impact of the coalition on political parties
• 27 July - The pundits' view
• 17 Aug - Lessons from other sectors

Coalition Government blog series

We are also running a series of articles on the IfG Blog, entitled 'Coalition Government in the UK - [How] is it working?':

• Coalition Government - is it here to stay?

We also plan to publish a further report in the summer revisiting the key lessons and reflecting on how well the coalition has worked in its early months.

 

Further reading and listening

• Coalition Government: [How] does it work? – podcast and slideshow on the challenges and tradeoffs of coalition government
• Making Minority Government Work: Hung parliaments and the challenges to Westminster and Whitehall (PDF, 3.3MB) – our report covers multi-party governance around the world, and the challenges for the UK in making it work
• Government Transitions: Preparing for changes of government (PDF, 5.6MB) – our report on the challenges facing politicians and civil servants in making new governments effective
• Radio 4 Week in Westminister: Listen to Peter Riddell and other commentators assess the coalition's progress so far.

If you have further questions about the Institute for Government's work in this area, email Akash Paun - akash.paun@instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Image: New Cabinet Ministers attending the first Cabinet meeting of the new coalition government, 13 May 2010. Courtesy of The Prime Minister's Office Flickr photostream (some rights reserved)