Ideology and the coalition

It seems clear from the outset that Liberal Democrats are less comfortable with coalition government than are the Conservative party. This is not just because the Lib Dems are the junior partner. Ideology plays an important role. The Conservatives enjoy a long tradition of pragmatism and flexibility making them ideally suited to the kind of compromises and policy trading which are now have to be made. Liberal Democrats, by contrast, are expected to be principled and even ideologically committed to some policy positions. This makes compromise and pragmatism less comfortable for the Lib Dems.
In particular Conservatives have been willing to abandon some of their historical philosophies in the ‘national interest’. Let’s take sentencing policy, for instance. The announcement of a new ‘liberal’ approach to the sentencing of younger and habitually petty criminals should not sit comfortably with the neo conservative attitude to law and order (‘prison works’ , ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’, ‘they can’t be committing crime while they’re banged up’ etc.). But the national interest now dictates that the prison population is too high and that huge savings can be made if we can reduce the numbers now residing at the taxpayers’ expense. Ken Clarke may well believe in the new ‘softer’ regime, but he also knows that he can charm the more common right wing elements in the party that saving money matters more than pursuing blindly the Daily Mail agenda on this issue.
By contrast the Liberal Democrats find themselves in position of having to retreat from firm commitments – not least on higher education funding – while attempting to continue styling themselves a ‘party of principle’.
The reason why the Liberal Democrats were so vehement in their opposition to top-up fees was probably that they expected to be in coalition with Labour rather than the Conservatives. The positions of the two parties on higher education were not too far apart so such a commitment was more likely to be sustainable. On the other hand, the prospect of two parties with ideological positions hanging round their necks, attempting to achieve consensus is truly frightening !
When it comes to coalition politics, ideology can get seriously in the way.