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Report

The Coalition: Voters, Parties and Institutions

The formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic government was an event of great historical significance.  Not only did it end thirteen years of

The formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic government was an event of great historical significance.  Not only did it end thirteen years of Labour Party rule, but it marked a departure from the traditional practice of single-party government at Westminster.

The Coalition: Voters, Parties and Institutions is based on a conference held at the Institute for Government last year and published by the University of East Anglia. It brings together leading commentators, academics and political figures to examine how the coalition government came about, describe how it works, and look at the views of voters, backbenchers and the media.

The main arguments are that:

  • A Conservative-Lib Dem coalition was the most likely outcome of the May 2010 elections. The intentions of voters pointed in this direction, and leading figures in both parties, including both David Cameron and Nick Clegg, were ready for it. Labour ministers, meanwhile, were divided on the desirability of coalition government and some were tired of office.
  • The Conservative and Lib-Dem rank-and-file were ambivalent about the coalition and their concerns were not assuaged over the coalition’s early life.
  • The experience of past peacetime coalitions offers important lessons for the leaders of all three political parties and suggests that the Lib Dems will face the most severe test.
  • The printed media was slow to take seriously the possibility of coalition government as an outcome of the 2010 elections.


Bob Worcester tracks the attitudes of voters which made a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition a strong possibility. Adam Boulton, David Cowling and Nick Anstead examine how the media covered the 2010 election campaign and dealt with the prospects of coalition government.  

Attitudes within the three main parties are recounted by Andrew Adonis, Nick Pearce, David Hall-Matthews and Iain Dale.  Robert Hazell and Ben Young look at the formal and informal mechanisms for coordinating relations between the governing parties, while Philip Cowley and John Stuart detail backbench dissent.

Thomas Otte examines earlier experiences of coalition government at Westminster, and Chris Hanretty draws on political science theory in considering whether the coalition is likely to survive a full five-year term.

Reflections on multi-party arrangements in the UK are offered by Bernard Donoughue, who looks back to the Lib-Lab Pact, which he witnessed at close quarters as a political adviser at Number 10 and by Jack McConnell, former Scotland First Minister, who recalls his experience of leading two coalition governments.  Chris Game discusses coalition in local government.

The Coalition: Voters, Parties and Institutions is based on a conference organized by the School of Political, Social and International Studies, UEA, the Institute for Government, and the Mile End Group, Queen Mary University of London.

 


 

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