Minority Government

[chickenfeet2003]

One of the arguments against Proportional Representation is that it leads to coalitions and minority governments and that these are, inevitably, "weak" governments. Leaving aside the question of whether "strong" government is a good thing, is this true? I'd say the recent experience in Canada suggests not. The Conservatives have now been in

Comments

[f4f3]

Interesting. I'm about mid-way through my first experience of a minority government, and I'm not altogether certain it has been a good thing. But it will certainly prove very interesting if Scotland votes Red and gets Blue.

[pigsnout000]

One part of the equation is the way in which early elections can be called. In the Canadian context, the ability for the government to make any vote a confidence vote has meant that the Harper government has been able to manipulate the opposition parties (in particular, the Liberals) to do what he want in getting legislation passed. In other systems, this isn't necessarily the case and it takes a formal motion of no confidence or blocking supply for the parliament to dissolve. These incentives to vote in certain ways based on electoral math helps to "strengthen" these minority governments at the expense of letting the people's representatives vote freely on what they believe good policy to be.