Coalitions and coalition management : an introduction to the art of coalition government – Rainer Adam, Sebastian Braun.

Description

Coalitions and coalition politics have occupied my mind and my practical work for quite some time. What prompted me to bring my various writings and my collection of writings of selected practitioners and scholars into the form of a book was my observation of the general widespread negative attitude vis-à-vis coalitions and coalitions government among politicians, the media and sections of the public. The depictions of coalitions speak for themselves. The words used to describe coalitions carry often a negative connotation. One talks of ‘coalescing’, and of coalitions as a ‘necessary evil’, and a ‘marriage of convenience’, which suggests the inferior quality of such arrangements and the values they are based on. The nature of such government is deemed a “compromise” which is derogatorily called ‘false’, ‘foul’, and even ‘very fishy’. Moreover, coalitions governments are usually described as ‘weak’ and ‘unstable’, very much in contrast to one-party governments, which are naturally seen as ‘strong’, ‘united’ and ‘stable’. With this valuecharged view, two of the most important democratic values, compromise and coalescing, which are at the heart of any democratic behaviour, are desecrated and derogated.