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 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
• Senate President Pro Tempore is a majority-party office: only the chamber's single largest party may declare, vote, or hold it

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.