Coalition Politics in India: History and Analysis of Political Alliances

Abstract

Federalism is an instrument of power sharing between independent authorities’ viz. union and state. Coalition government is also a means of power sharing. Logically both federalism and coalition government should be complimentary to each other. As the object of sharing of power is common in both, a student of politics or law may gather the impression that coalition government is always supportive of federal form of government or constitution and sometime also gives more opportunity for expression of ideas and democratic rights to small and regional parties. In this way it seems that coalition government promotes democracy and representative administration. But there are some grey areas also of the coalition politics like sometimes the coalition which are formed after declaration of election which give rise to ‘horse trading’ for the purpose of proving majority on the floor of house of representatives. The paper discusses the development of coalition politics and explores some solutions how the grey areas in coalition politics can be minimized.