National government
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Template:Mergewith National governments or national unity governments are broad coalition governments consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature and are often formed during times of war or national emergency.
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Israel
Israel has had several National Unity Governments in which the rival Israeli Labour Party and Likud formed a ruling coalition.
Britain
In Britain, the electoral system is often said to discourage coalitions; but National Governments were formed during World War I and World War II. The coalition under David Lloyd George lasted until 1922. During the Great Depression a coalition termed a National Government was formed in 1931 between Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and the Conservatives and Liberals. Most members of the Labour Party rejected the government, however, and moved to the opposition benches leaving MacDonald and his supporters to stand as National Labour. This coalition had some support from National Liberals, also, with the disarray of the Liberal Party of the time; it took in broader support in the war years, and nominally persisted until the general election of 1945. Subsequently coalition politics in the UK was seen only in the form of the brief Lib-Lab Pact.
Canada
The (then independent) Dominion of Newfoundland had a National Government during World War I.
In Canada, during World War I, the Conservative government of Sir Robert Borden invited the Liberal opposition to join the government as a means of dealing with the Conscription crisis of 1917. The Liberals, led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier refused; however, Borden was able to convince many individual Liberals to join what was called a Union Government which defeated the Laurier Liberals in the fall 1917 election.
In Canada, during World War II, the opposition Conservative Party ran under the name National Government in the 1940 election as a means of promoting their platform of creating a wartime national government coalition (evocative of the previous war's Union government). The party did dismally in the election which re-elected the Liberal government of William Lyon Mackenzie King whose party continued to rule alone for the duration of World War II.
See National Government (Canada)
National parties
Some countries, eg New Zealand, have or have had a National Party, which can lead to the use of the phrase "National Government" when it is in power. Such governments are not National Governments in the sense of this article.