Election Results 2006

Communists Asked to Form a Government

As in most parliamentary democracies with multiparty systems with significant numbers of parties, Ruritanian government is generally not “captured” by one political party. In order to control government in Ruritania, a coalition of parties (with a majority of the seats in the National Constituent Assembly, ie. 50) must agree to form. They form by:

1) choosing a Prime Minister (usually from the party obtaining the most seats); and

2) allocating ministries to members of the National Constituent Assembly
from various parties.

This differs greatly from the US system where the president is chosen separately from the legislature and members of his/her Cabinet are NOT part of the legislature. This is a reflection of the notion of separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government.

The new political system created by the National Committee for Reconciliation (NCR) emphasizes "executive power-sharing".  Since no political party has won a majority of the seats in the National Constituent Assembly, Ruritania will have a coalition government.  Coalition governments are the norm in many democracies.  While America (because of its presidential system) and Britain (because of its modified or two and one-half party system) have Cabinets composed of members from the same political party, in coalition governments, the coalition is formed by a select number of parties agreeing to allocate the position of Prime Minister and Cabinet ministerships among themselves.  Parties are thus able to exert influence in areas of interest to their constituents (ie., their voters) by controlling ministerships in select important areas.  The ministerships to be allocated among the parties forming the  coalition government in Ruritania.

Prince Brian asks the Communist party to try to form a coalition government.