Coalition Governments

Is the UK governance system different to rest of europe's? It seems they all have ''coalition governments''. what's that mean anyway?

In the UK, for Westminster elections, we use an electoral system called 'first past the post'. What that basically means is that our political parties field candidates who compete for the 646 seats across the nation. The party that gains the majority of these seats forms the government, even if they haven't received a majority of the overall vote. e.g., Labour, despite only receiving a 35.3% share of the vote, won the 2005 election due to winning the most seats.

However in some European countries their electoral system is one of Proportional Representation. Unlike first past the post, you cannot be the sole party in power unless you receive a 50%+ share of the vote. As such, countries that practice PR often find themselves governed by a coalition of parties.

Those that are for PR argue that it is a more pure and representative form of democracy; whereas those against would likely retort that PR creates a weak government as well as giving legitimacy to extremist parties.