The term "coalition" is the denotation for a group formed when two or more persons, faction, states, political parties, militaries etc. agree to work together temporarily in a partnership to achieve a common goal. The word coalition connotes a coming together to achieve a goal.

Formation

According to A Guide for Political Parties published by National Democratic Institute and The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, there are five steps of coalition-building:

• 1. Developing a party strategy: The first step in coalition-building involves developing a party strategy that will lay the ground for successful negotiation. The more effort parties place on this step, the more likely they are to identify strategic partners, negotiate a good deal and avoid some of the common pitfalls associated with coalition-building.
  
  
• Negotiating a coalition: Based on the strategy that each party has prepared, in Step 2 the parties come together to negotiate and hopefully reach agreement on the terms for the coalition. Depending on the context and objectives of the coalition, these negotiations may be completely secret or partially public. While some issues may be agreed on with relative ease, others may be more contentious and require different approaches to reach compromise.
  
  
• Getting started: As negotiation begins to wrap-up, the agreement between political parties needs to be formally sealed. This includes finalizing a written agreement, securing formal approval of the deal from the relevant structures of the coalition’s member parties and announcing the coalition details to the general public.
  
  
• Working in a coalition: As the coalition partners begin working to implement their agreement, they will need to maintain good relations by continuing efforts to increase or sustain trust and communication among the member parties. Each party will also need to strike a balance between respecting its obligations to the coalition and maintaining its individual identity.
  
  
• Drawing lessons learned: Regardless of whether it plans to move forward alone or in another coalition, it is important for each party to review and document lessons learned from each coalition-building experience. This will make it possible to get a clearer picture of the positive and negative impacts of coalition-building on the party and to identify lessons learned that can inform any future coalition-building efforts.

 

Coalitions manifest in a variety of forms, types, and terms of duration:

 

• Campaign coalitions with high intensity and long-term cooperation
  
  
• Federations, characterized by relatively lower degree of involvement, intensity, and participation, involving cooperation of long duration, but with members’ primary commitment remaining with their own entities
  
  
• Instrumental coalitions, involving low-intensity involvement without a foundation to mediate conflict
  
  
• Event-based coalitions that have a high level of involvement and the potential for future collaboration.

 

By contrast to alliances, coalitions are what might be termed ‘partnerships of unequals’ since comparative political, economic, and military might, or more particularly the extent to which a nation is prepared to commit, dictates who will lead, who is in the inner circle, and who will have influence. Coalitions generally occur as an unplanned reply to situations of danger, uncertainty, or supernatural events they are also nonpermanent integrations directed at interim objectives. In terms of participation coalitions are, by their nature, more of a "come as you are, wear what you want, leave when you want party".

Function

Coalitions branch into two expanding categories: internal coalitions and external coalitions.

Internal coalitions consist of people who are already in an organization, such as a workplace. For example, the trade union is a type of coalition which was formed in order to represent employees' wages, benefits, and working conditions. Without this unity between employees, workers were subjugated to harsh working environments and low pay due to no practical regulations. Often, organizations prefer to council with members of their respective internal coalitions before implementing changes at the workplace to ensure support.

In contrast, external coalitions consist of people that are members of different organizations who collaborate their efforts to achieve an overall objective. For example, in order to prevent gun violence and advocate gun control, several groups, unions, and nonprofit organizations banded to form the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. External coalitions base their confidence in gaining credibility on inviting unlikely partners who wish to attain the same end goal, but the reasons to achieve these goals differ.

History

Coalition government stands as an alternative model to majoritarian governance, the latter being characterized by winner-take-all "first-past-the-post" electoral systems that favor clear distinctions between winners and losers. Not only can coalitions of legislative groups form governments in parliamentary systems but they can form in divisions of power as well. The most usual analyses of coalitions in politics deal with the formation of multiparty cabinets in parliamentary regimes. In Germany, every administration has been a multiparty coalition since the conclusion of the Second World War, an example of a coalition government creation in a parliamentary government. When different winning coalitions can be formed in a parliament, the party composition of the government may depend on the bargaining power of each party and the presence, or not, of a dominant party.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines coalition as "the joining together of different political parties or groups for a particular purpose, usually for a limited time, or a government that is formed in this way".