A strong and responsible opposition is a prerequisite to the viable functioning of parliamentary democracy, which is based on a party system. Benjamin Disraeli noted as far back as 1844 that ‘no government can be long secure without a formidable opposition’. The role of the opposition in a parliamentary system of government should be not just to act as a ‘government-in-waiting’, but also check any arbitrary tendencies of the government in power. An effective opposition performs a restraining role vis-à-vis the party in power, preventing it from transgressing its functional limits and simultaneously posing a constant challenge by promising a practical alternative. What should be emphasized is that the opposition should be a responsible one to be truly effective. In some well organized democracies, the role of the opposition is sometimes reduced to a mere tokenism as a result of long-term dominance by a single party. In others, particularly in post-colonial Third World states with long legacies of authoritarian rule, the opposition is deliberately kept weak by the dominant party, which perpetuates its power through unfair means while keeping up a semblance of electoral rule. Historically, parliamentary opposition has appeared to function better in systems where there are two major parties. In multiple party states, there may be more than one opposition party, and such parties may have little in common and therefore, a minimal desire to unite. When coalitions occur, these could prove fragile because of different aims and objectives of the constituent parties.