Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

-based

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of th ...

. This article uses the term ''

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''the administration'' or ''the cabinet'' rather than ''the state''. In some countries the title of "Official Opposition" is conferred upon the largest

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

sitting in opposition in the legislature, with said party's leader being accorded the title "

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

". In

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

assemblies, where the tendency to gravitate into two major parties or party groupings operates strongly, ''government'' and ''opposition'' roles can go to the two main groupings serially in alternation. The more proportional a representative system, the greater the likelihood of multiple political parties appearing in the parliamentary

debating chamber A debate chamber is a room for people to discuss and debate. Debate chambers are used in governmental and educational bodies, such as a parliament, congress, city council, or a university, either for formal proceedings or for informal discourse ...

. Such systems can foster multiple "opposition" parties which may have little in common and minimal desire to form a united bloc opposed to the government of the day. Some well-organised democracies, dominated long-term by a single faction, reduce their parliamentary opposition to

tokenism Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality w ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

exemplifies a case of a numerically weak opposition;

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

under the ''apartheid'' regime maintained a long-term imbalance in the parliament. In some cases, tame "opposition" parties are created by the governing groups in order to create an impression of democratic debate. Some legislatures offer opposition parties particular powers. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

20 days each year are set aside as " Opposition Days" or "Supply Days", during which the opposition gets to set the agenda. Canada also has a Question Period, during which the opposition (and the Parliament generally) can ask questions of government ministers.

References

{{Reflist Legislatures Westminster system

See also

References