  a coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate, reducing the dominance of any one party within that coalition. the usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament. a coalition government might also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis, for example during wartime, or economic crisis, to give a government the high degree of perceived political legitimacy, or collective identity it desires while also playing a role in diminishing internal political strife. in such times, parties have formed all-party coalitions (national unity governments, grand coalitions). if a coalition collapses, a confidence vote is held or a motion of no confidence is taken. ==practice==  when a general election does not produce a clear majority for a single party, parties either form coalition cabinets, supported by a parliamentary majority, or minority cabinets which may consist of one or more parties. cabinets based on a group of parties that commands a majority in parliament tend to be more stable and long-lived than minority cabinets. while the former are prone to internal struggles, they have less reason to fear votes of no confidence. majority governments based on a single party are typically even more stable, as long as their majority can be maintained. coalition cabinets are common in countries whose parliament is elected by proportional representation, with several organized political parties often represented. they are rarer in countries in which the cabinet is chosen by the executive rather than by a lower house, such as in the united states (however, coalition cabinets are common in brazil). in semi-presidential systems such as france, where the president formally appoints a prime minister, but the government itself must still maintain the confidence of parliament, coalition governments occur quite often. ==distribution==  countries which often operate with coalition cabinets include: the nordic countries, the benelux countries, australia, austria, france, germany, indonesia, italy, japan, latvia, turkey, israel, new zealand, kosovo, pakistan, kenya, nepal, india, trinidad and tobago, thailand and ukraine. switzerland has been ruled by a coalition of the four strongest parties in parliament from 1959 to 2008, called the "magic formula". since 2010, the united kingdom also operates a formal coalition between the [[conservative party (uk)|con
Coalition_governments