Globally, voters seek consensus, coalition building

In the space of just two weeks, at least six nations around the globe have held consequential national or local elections. Voters in only two countries returned decisive leadership preferences. On Oct. 25, Brazilians elected their incumbent president to an unprecedented fourth term, and Serbia’s student-led movement won enough Assembly seats to end 12 years of rule by an autocrat. Elsewhere, voting tallies transmitted less clear-cut and more complex messages. None of the traditional parties or blocs won sufficient votes to form a national government in New Zealand or Israel, or to administer most major municipalities in South Africa. In the United States, Democrats gained congressional and state seats. But their majorities in Washington are not sufficient to withstand obstruction or vetoes from a Republican-led presidency. On one level, these results might seem like a recipe for legislative inertia and policy stagnation. But a deeper examination of the nuances of voters’ choices, and of the necessity of demonstrating progress to the public, indicates opportunities to break out of political binaries and engage in bigger-tent governing and consensus building. Voting publics are worried about rising inflation, unstable employment prospects, and the economic and human toll of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. But even more, it appears, they have wearied of polarizing politics and immovable partisan views. Voters in all of these democracies, surveys show, want cross-partisan cooperation among lawmakers. “Coalitions can encourage political compromise, broaden representation and compel parties to negotiate around shared priorities,” according to South African analyst Charles Matseke. But, in a commentary on the Agence France-Presse news site, he warned against “the negotiation process becom[ing] an exercise in distributing political offices rather than establishing a common programme for ... recovery and good governance.”A recent Gallup survey reported that 70% of Americans agree: “It is very important that elected leaders work across party lines.” This aligns with a 2024 Ipsos survey, which found that more respondents in each of seven countries surveyed preferred a political leader ready to compromise and build consensus rather than one who sticks to “rigid” approaches, “regardless of what others think.” As ordinary citizens indicate a desire for elected representatives to break out of partisan silos, voters themselves are also undergoing similar transitions. South Africans, for instance, are shedding long-standing, race-based party affiliations. Instead, they are coalescing around shared values of clean government and service delivery that cut across racial and ethnic divisions. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. In New Zealand, the centrist Opportunity Party has peeled away votes from the mainstream left and right blocs. “Voters are less attached to parties than they used to be ... and the deep tribalism has gone,” academic Richard Shaw told The Guardian a few months ago. In Israel, ethnic and religious loyalties are confronting a desire for compromise and compassion in addressing issues of Israeli security and Palestinian sovereignty. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, tasked with forming a governing coalition in the next six weeks, declared Sunday that this “will require creative and unconventional political acts.” He added, “All of us will need to compromise.” ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.