Question for people from countries that have a parliament: do parties that form a coalition together form the same coalition at lower levels (in our case regions) or only in the parliament?
I can only speak from an Australian perspective on this one.
The Liberal-National Coalition at a federal level has been very strong. The parties have been in Coalition for as long as I can remember, and as far as I'm aware have not broken from the Coalition since the old UAP-Country Party Coalition before the Second World War. Back then, Sir Robert Menzies and Earle Paige didn't get on so well, despite being the leaders of those parties, and one of the most scathing attacks launched in the Parliament (by the standards of the day) was an attack by Paige on Menzies for not enlisting during WWI. It seems pretty tame by today's standards, though.
Nonetheless, in 1975, when the Liberal Party under Fraser defeated Whitlam, the Liberal Party had enough seats to form a majority government in the House, without the need for a coalition with the National Party. Despite this, Fraser kept the Coalition Agreement in place and gave National Party MPs ministries in the Government and the National Party Leader, Doug Anthony, became the Deputy Prime Minister.
In 1996, Howard swept to power with again enough Liberal MPs to form a majority government without the National Party, however he also appointed National Party Leader, Tim Fisher, Deputy Prime Minister and gave the National Party various ministries - indeed, more than their numbers in the House would have dictated under the Coalition Agreement.
Of course, since then, the Liberal Party would have needed National Party MPs to form a Coalition Government, but the point is that even when this is not the case, the Coalition hasn't been disolved at a federal level and remained strong even when it's been unnecessary. This has led some to say that the Liberal and National Parties are an urban and rural faction of the one conservative party. Relations between the two parties are not always smooth, however.
In Queensland, the National Party has been the dominant conservative party for over fifty years - probably more like eighty years. The Coalition there has been somewhat more unstable in the past, however it must be noted that the two parties have since merged (as of last year). While things seem to be somewhat smooth presently, in the past the Coalition in Queensland has had a rocky relationship. In 1983, the Liberals tore up the Coalition Agreement and left the Government, because of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's refusal to create a committee - I think it was a scrutiny of government spending type committee. The Labor Party was in Opposition and wanted the committee to keep the government accountable and probably dig up information that could be used against it. The Liberals wanted it more from a philosophical accountability perspective (since they were in a coalition government with the National Party) and the Nationals were opposed to the committee. After being torn up in 1983, it took over a decade for the parties to come together again - the Coalition was re-formed in time for the 1995 state election, in which the Coalition came up two seats short of forming government - a byelection in a Labor-held seat (after the election result from the GE was overturned by the courts) led to the Coalition forming a minority government with the support of an independent (Liz Cunningham from Gladstone). Following the 1998 election defeat, the Nationals tore up the Coalition Agreement, before again re-forming it before the 2001 election. They then tore it up again following that election, before re-signing it less than a year later. The past couple of elections, the coalition has together even following electoral defeats, and as I said, the two parties have now merged.
The Coalition is stronger in Victoria and New South Wales, where the National Party is firmly in the minority and faces a declining constituency due to urban growth. As a result, the relationship tends to be stronger. In Victoria, the parties were out of coalition for a few years (I think since the 1999 election defeat of the Kennett Coalition Government) until last year, when a new agreement was signed.
In Western Australia the parties were not in coalition. There was an election earlier this year (and this was discussed at the tail-end of the thread on that election in the International Elections board). Following the election, the National Party leader toyed with the idea of giving support to Labor, before cooler heads prevailed and the coalition was re-formed.
In South Australia, there was only one National Party MP, who decided to join with the Labor Party in coalition in order to receive a ministry.
So in short, while the Liberal and National Parties have been in Coalition for a very long while in most states and federally, the relationship is not always smooth, and in some cases has actually fallen apart.
