Coalitions

Coalitions are cross-party alliances within a single country. They let parties pool their political identity and, in the US specifically, aggregate their legislative seats into bloc math for chamber leadership.

What a coalition does#

In the US, coalitions have a direct mechanical effect on chamber leadership:

• Parties in the same coalition have their seats combined into a bloc
• The largest bloc is the majority bloc; the second-largest is the minority bloc
• House and Senate Majority Leader (and Whip) are narrower: only the single national party with the most seats in that chamber may declare or vote
• Minority-side leadership (Leader and Whip) remains open to non-majority parties outside the majority bloc
• Speaker of the House, Senate President Pro Tempore, and the DE Bundestagspräsident are open to any seated chamber member: bloc and party affiliation do not gate candidacy or voting for these presiding-officer roles

Outside the US, coalitions are organizational and signaling only. Parliamentary countries (UK, DE, JP, IE) use their own government-formation systems and do not consult coalition membership when forming governments. There is no country CA in the live roster (CA is California).

Coalition structure#

Every coalition has:

• A name (3-60 characters) and abbreviation (2-10 characters)
• A hex color for display
• A chair party - the party that manages the coalition
• A chair character - the national chair of the chair party
• An ordered members list tracking each party's join date

Coalitions are scoped to a country - a US coalition cannot include UK parties.

Viewing coalitions#

On the /parties page, there is a Parties / Coalitions tab switcher. The Coalitions tab shows all coalitions for the selected country as a card grid. Coalition detail pages are at /parties/coalition/[id]?country=X.

Each coalition detail page shows:

Membership size effects#

The larger your coalition, the stronger your bloc - but also the more parties that need to agree on how to use it. A coalition with 5 parties has 5 chairs who can initiate or vote on disband, meaning defections require broader consensus.

Coalition vs. party#

Coalitions and parties are distinct. A character belongs to a party, not directly to a coalition. The coalition is a relationship between parties at the national chair level. Individual members of a party inherit the coalition's bloc status, which affects Minority Leader/Whip exclusion and several other coalition-aware UI signals. But they are not "members of the coalition"; they are members of a member party.

Related#

• Coalition Formation - How to create, invite, join, and disband.
• Party Leadership - National chair role required to manage coalitions.
• Political Parties - How parties relate to coalitions.