partikoalition

Partikoalition is a political science term describing a strategy in multi-party systems in which participating parties coordinate to advance a set of distinct policy parts as a way to form a governing coalition while preserving party identity. The term blends “part” and “coalition” and is used in discussions of issue-based or policy-part governance, though it remains a relatively uncommon label in mainstream literature.

Key features include identifying discrete policy areas where parties share enough common ground to govern, and creating formal or informal agreements detailing which party leads on which policy part. This approach allows parties with divergent overall ideologies to collaborate by partitioning the agenda, and it can be implemented as a pre-electoral arrangement or as a post-electoral bargain after an election.

In practice, partikoalition seeks to improve representativeness and governance by enabling a broader coalitional base without forcing parties to abandon core identities. It can offer clearer voter choices on specific issues and potentially reduce veto points if each part has a designated lead. However, it also introduces complexity into negotiations, creating potential for bargaining paralysis if part assignments drift or if external events force renegotiation. Accountability can become diffuse, as responsibility for a given policy part may be shared or contested.

The term is most often discussed in theoretical or comparative politics analyses and is used to describe arrangements that resemble issue-based or policy-based coalitions rather than traditional broad collaborations. Related concepts include coalition government, electoral alliance, and governance coalition.