After the age of majority? Multi-party governance and the Westminster model

Abstract

The ‘Westminster family’ of democracies – the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – share a history of majoritarian politics and two-party dominance. However, recent elections in each of these four countries have delivered legislatures with no single-party majority, following long-term trends towards greater pluralism in the party system. Despite their common heritage, when faced with the challenge of forming a government from a hung parliament, these four countries have followed rather different paths. The UK opted for full coalition government, while Canada from 2004 to 2011 was governed by a pure minority government. New Zealand and Australia fall somewhere in between these two extremes in terms of the extent of formal cooperation between parties. This variation can be explained by a range of factors, including the particular history of each country and the belief that multi-party governance is merely a temporary exception to majoritarian rule.