New coalition governments in Asia must embrace compromise

Elvin Ong is an assistant professor and a SSHR fellow in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views and opinions of NUS.

In the consolidated democracies of Western and Northern Europe, few political parties can win an outright majority of legislative seats in elections. Hence, post-election negotiations and compromise between political parties to form a coalition government is common.