is seldom a good reason to form an over-large coalition. The other principal
rule is of ‘ideological connectedness’. Parties will try to co-operate with others
nearest to their own political values. Thus one of the minimum-winning
coalitions in the example above would be between A and C, but C is not
ideologically the closest possible partner for A.
In other examples different factors emerge, such as problems arising from
the provision of collective goods and, in the international arena, from the
general theory of thebalance of power.
Cohabitation
Cohabitation was the term used to describe the period between 1986 and 1988
when a socialist French president, Franc ̧oisMitterrand, and a centre-right
coalition headed by prime minister Jacques Chirac, together formed the
government of France The prospect of a president facing a strong and hostile
parliamentary majority was thought to be especially problematic because of the
constitutional ambiguity in the role and power of theprime minister.
Mitterrand was not constitutionally required to select a prime minister from
the majority coalition in the National Assembly, but an appointee from his
own party would have found it extremely difficult to govern. The alternative
was a centre-right prime minister (aGaullistin the case of Chirac) who might
be able to guarantee to pass legislation through the assembly, but could be
presented with an impasse if presidential powers were used regularly to block
the implementation of that legislation. Furthermore, all previous Fifth
Republicprime ministers had been very much subordinate to the presidents,
liable to be freely dismissed and in practice having little influence over the
selection of ministers. This first experience of divided party control over the
executive in France had been much feared as likely to cause instability. In fact
French politics managed perfectly well, and there have been similar periods
since.
French constitutional experts had long dreaded this situation arising, and
what happened was that a very uneasy truce was worked out in which the
centre-right government would not try to repeal much of its socialist pre-
decessor’s work, and would accept that Mitterrand had a supremacy in certain
areas traditionally viewed as in the president’s prerogative. This was made easier
than it might have been because Mitterrand had himself always been more
right wing in his defence policy than most of his party, and because the
economic problems of France in the mid-1980s tended to dictate policy in that
area. Nevertheless, although the two elements of the government succeeded in
working together without too much strain, it was a period of relative inactivity
and, had the cohabitation had to continue much longer, problems would have
arisen. Once Mitterrand had been re-elected president in 1988 he called a
Cohabitation