Parties in coalitions find themselves caught between the need to cooperate and differentiate

The UK’s first coalition government during peacetime since 1945 ended with the electoral decimation of the Liberal Democrats at the 2015 election, with the party seemingly punished for its inability to create a compelling justification for its 2010 voters to back them again in the post-Coalition UK political landscape. Here, Inaki Sagarzazu and Heike Kluever show that the dilemma for coalition partners is finding an appropriate balance between the incompatible needs to cooperate and differentiate.