Edmund Burke is famous for saying, “All government… is founded on compromise and barter.” Indeed, virtually all actions of a democratic government involve some sort of compromise: all separate factions receive a portion of the result they want, but no single faction receives everything they want. Collectively, these united factions form today’s word – coalition.
In political terms, coalitions have presumably existed from the beginnings of democracy in 6th century BC Athens. However, the word itself only entered the English language in the early 1600’s. Coming from the mid-1500’s French word coalition, both words are derivatives of the Late Latin coalitus (fellowship).
Looking at the word as it relates to British politics, beyond just issue-related instances, coalitions are usually formed in times of emergency or political transition. While the Conservative Party has a largely unbroken lineage, the other 2 current major parties in government- Liberal-Dems and Labour- reached their current state because of mergers and coalition-building. The Liberal Democrats formed from the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in 1988 after having a long-standing mutual coalition. And the Labour Party, though not being formed from other parties, is the result of a turn of the century (19th to 20th) attempt by the Trade Union Congress to provide better representation for left-wing, working class groups. Aside from the individual parties, there have also been instances where all major parties have joined together to form a national unity coalition government, though the instances have been in times of crisis, such as during both World Wars and the Great Depression.
Unsurprisingly, as with most words, it took some time before the word coalition came to be used in the sense that is the most familiar to us. Initially, the term was first written in 1605 to indicate a generalized union in Edward Philips’ Certaine Godly and Learned Sermons, “We are flesh of his flesh,..which must not be understood of any incarnation… coalition and mixture of his flesh and ours.” Our word first entered the realm of politics through international relations in A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, where, in 1653, Thurloe writes that, “The states of Holland have resolved once more humbly to desire a peace from you, but shall cost them no money, nor cautionary towns, nor enter into coalition, nor offensive war.” Reaching our most familiar usage, the term was used as part of a telling essay from 1715, Nathaniel Castleton’s An essay towards a coalition of parties in Great Britain. While we may be familiar with coalitions now, whether or not we’ll be as familiar with the term in 2 months’ time (after the election) remains to be seen.
