Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillBorn 30 Nov 1874Churchill's war ministry of 1940 to 1945 was a genuine all-party coalition, and its domestic success rested on handing Labour real power: Attlee as deputy running the home front, Ernest Bevin mobilising labour, and the Beveridge Report commissioned along the way. Churchill was a difficult colleague…0i
  2. 2Alcide De GasperiAlcide De GasperiBorn 3 Apr 1881De Gasperi led eight successive Italian governments between 1945 and 1953, first with Communists and Socialists in post-war national unity, then with small centrist parties after 1947. His Christian Democrats could have governed alone after winning a majority in 1948, yet he kept the Liberals,…0i
  3. 3Konrad AdenauerKonrad AdenauerBorn 5 Jan 1876West Germany's first chancellor was elected in 1949 by a single vote, his own, and governed through coalitions with the Free Democrats and smaller conservative parties for most of fourteen years. Adenauer absorbed or outlasted his junior partners with ruthless skill, and the arrangement delivered…0i
  4. 4Willy BrandtWilly BrandtBorn 18 Dec 1913Brandt's 1969 coalition between the Social Democrats and the much smaller Free Democrats had a majority of about a dozen seats and lost several members to defections over his eastern policy. He survived a constructive no-confidence vote in 1972 by two votes and then won a larger majority at the…0i
  5. 5Helmut KohlHelmut KohlBorn 3 Apr 1930Kohl came to power in 1982 because the Free Democrats switched sides mid-parliament, and he then kept that partnership with Hans-Dietrich Genscher's party for sixteen years. Leaving the foreign ministry in Genscher's hands was the key bargain, and the two together steered German reunification in…0i
  6. 6Wim KokWim KokBorn 29 Sept 1938Kok's 'purple' coalitions of 1994 to 2002 joined his Labour Party with the free-market VVD and the liberal D66 and, for the first time in decades, left the Christian Democrats out of Dutch government. The unlikely partners delivered strong job growth through wage moderation and budget repair, and…0i
  7. 7Romano ProdiRomano ProdiBorn 9 Aug 1939Prodi is the cautionary and admirable case at once. His Olive Tree coalition of 1996 squeezed Italy's deficit hard enough to qualify for the euro at launch, the result it had promised. Both his governments then fell because of tiny partners: Communist Refoundation brought down the first in 1998,…0i
  8. 8Atal Bihari VajpayeeAtal Bihari VajpayeeBorn 25 Dec 1924Vajpayee's first government lost a confidence vote by a single vote in 1999 when a southern ally withdrew. He rebuilt the National Democratic Alliance with more than twenty parties and became the first prime minister outside Congress to complete a full term. To hold it together, his party set aside…0i
  9. 9Manmohan SinghManmohan SinghBorn 26 Sept 1932Singh led India's United Progressive Alliance for ten years without being its party leader, with Sonia Gandhi holding the Congress Party and the Left parties supporting from outside in the first term. That arrangement produced the national rural employment guarantee, the Right to Information Act…0i
  10. 10Helen ClarkHelen ClarkNew Zealand's switch to proportional representation in 1996 began with a coalition that collapsed. Clark showed how to make the new system work, governing for nine years through minority coalitions and written support agreements with the Alliance, Progressives, Greens, United Future and New Zealand…0i