Mock Election and Government Formation in India

The most surprising outcome of yestederday’s government formation experiment was that the FDP, the largest party in the ‘Bundestag’, was excluded from the winning coalition. It actually seems like the Green Party — tied for lowest representation in parliament — turned out to be the deciding factor. Had the FDP courted the Greens early, offering them, say, the Education and Environmental Ministries (and possibly even a third cabinet position), the FDP would have been able to form a coalition government, in which they could have held the other four (or three) ministries and the Chancellorship. The FDP would have had 6 of the 9 seats in this coalition and thus been able to act relatively freely once the government was approved. Instead, the Green Party sided with the CDU and the SDP, and helped them to form the winning coalition.

Recently, there have been a number of articles in the Indian news regarding government formation in the state legislature of Meghalaya, in northeast India. There are 60 seats in the Meghalaya state legislature, elected by proportional representation. Their government formation process seems fairly similar to Germany’s, as political parties debate cabinet posts and budget allocations until an agreement is reached. Over the last month, the elected MPs in Meghalaya have been trying to form a coalition government. Amidst heavy politicking, the largest represented party, Congress, was able to form the winning coalition, by giving cabinet posts to “fence-sitting” independent representatives. This and our example show that, in government formation, you cannot forget about the little guy.

http://inwww.rediff.com/newshound/mg.html (see “Swearing in of Meghalaya Cabinet Today”)