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 the
legislature, typically a
parliament, to which it is accountable. In a parliamentary system, the
head of state is usually a person distinct from the
head of government. This is in contrast to a
presidential system, where the head of state often is also the head of government and, most importantly, where the executive does not derive its democratic legitimacy from the legislature.
Countries with parliamentary systems may be
constitutional monarchies
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
, where a
monarch is the head of state while the head of government is almost always a
member of parliament, or
parliamentary republics, where a mostly ceremonial president is the head of state while the head of government is regularly from the legislature. In a few parliamentary republics, among
some others, the head of government is also head of state, but is elected by and is answerable to parliament. In
bicameral parliaments, the head of government is generally, though not always, a member of the lower house.
Parliamentarianism
Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all ...
is the dominant
form of government in
Europe, with 32 of its
50 sovereign states being parliamentarian. It is also common in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean S ...
, being the form of government of 10 of its 13 island states, and in
Oceania. Elsewhere in the world, parliamentary countries are less common, but they are distributed through all continents, most often in former colonies of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
that subscribe to a particular brand of parliamentarianism known as the
Westminster system.
History
Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders. Eventually, these councils have slowly evolved into the modern parliamentary system.
The first
parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages: specifically in 1188 Alfonso IX, King of Leon (Spain) convened the three states in the
Cortes of León
Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to:
People
* Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name
** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador
Places
* Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...
. An early example of parliamentary government developed in today's Netherlands and Belgium during the
Dutch revolt (1581), when the sovereign, legislative and executive powers were taken over by the
States General of the Netherlands from the monarch,
King Philip II of Spain. The modern concept of parliamentary government emerged in the
Kingdom of Great Britain between 1707 and 1800 and its contemporary, the
Parliamentary System in Sweden between 1721 and 1772.
In England,
Simon de Montfort
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...
is remembered as one of the fathers of
representative government for convening two famous parliaments.
The first, in 1258, stripped the king of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included
ordinary citizens from the towns.
Later, in the 17th century, the
Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of
liberal democracy culminating in the
Glorious Revolution and passage of the
Bill of Rights 1689
The Bill of Rights 1689 is an Act of the Parliament of England, which sets out certain basic civil rights and clarifies who would be next to inherit the Crown, and is seen as a crucial landmark in English constitutional law. It received Roya ...
.
In the
Kingdom of Great Britain, the monarch, in theory, chaired cabinet and chose ministers. In practice, King
George I George I or 1 may refer to:
People
* Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
* George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
* George I of Antioch (d. 790)
* George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
* George I of Georgia (d. 1027)
* Yuri Dol ...
's inability to speak English led the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the leading minister, literally the ''
prime
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
'' or first minister,
Robert Walpole. The gradual democratisation of parliament with the broadening of the voting franchise increased parliament's role in controlling government, and in deciding whom the king could ask to form a government. By the 19th century, the
Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice ''invariably'' deciding who was prime minister and the complexion of the government.
Other countries gradually adopted what came to be called the
Westminster system of government, with an executive answerable to the lower house of a bicameral parliament, and exercising, in the name of the head of state, powers nominally vested in the head of state – hence the use of phrases such as ''Her Majesty's government'' (in constitutional monarchies) or ''His Excellency's government'' (in
parliamentary republics
A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). There are a number ...
). Such a system became particularly prevalent in older British dominions, many of which had their constitutions enacted by the British parliament; such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the ...
and the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tra ...
. Some of these parliaments were reformed from, or were initially developed as distinct from their original British model: the
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a to ...
, for instance, has since its inception more closely reflected the
US Senate than the British
House of Lords; whereas since 1950 there is no upper house in New Zealand. Many of these countries such as
Trinidad and Tobago and
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
have severed institutional ties to Great Britain by becoming republics with their own ceremonial Presidents, but retain the Westminster system of government.
Democracy and
parliamentarianism
Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all ...
became increasingly prevalent in Europe in the years after
World War I, partially imposed by the democratic victors, the United States, Great Britain and France, on the defeated countries and their successors, notably
Germany's Weimar Republic and the
First Austrian Republic. Nineteenth-century
urbanisation, the
Industrial Revolution and
modernism had already made the parliamentarist demands of the
Radicals
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
and the emerging movement of
social democrats increasingly impossible to ignore; these forces came to dominate many states that transitioned to parliamentarism, particularly in the
French Third Republic where the
Radical Party and its centre-left allies dominated the government for several decades. However, the rise of
Fascism in the 1930s put an end to parliamentary democracy in Italy and Germany, among others.
After the
Second World War, the defeated
fascist Axis powers were occupied by the victorious
Allies. In those countries occupied by the Allied democracies (the
United States,
United Kingdom, and
France) parliamentary constitutions were implemented, resulting in the
parliamentary constitutions of Italy and
West Germany (now all of Germany) and the 1947
Constitution of Japan
The Constitution of Japan (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , Hepburn: ) is the constitution of Japan and the supreme law in the state. Written primarily by American civilian officials working under the Allied occupation of Japan, the constitution ...
. The experiences of the war in the occupied nations where the legitimate democratic governments were allowed to return strengthened the public commitment to parliamentary principles; in
Denmark, a new constitution was written in 1953, while a long and acrimonious debate in Norway resulted in no changes being made to that country's
strongly entrenched democratic constitution.
Characteristics
A parliamentary system may be either
bicameral, with two
chambers of parliament (or houses) or
unicameral, with just one parliamentary chamber. A bicameral parliament usually consists of a directly elected
lower house with the power to determine the executive government, and an
upper house which may be appointed or elected through a different mechanism from the lower house.
Types
Scholars of democracy such as
Arend Lijphart
Arend d'Angremond Lijphart (born 17 August 1936) is a Dutch-American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, elections and voting systems, democratic institutions, and ethnicity and politics. He is Research Professor Emeritu ...
distinguish two types of parliamentary democracies: the Westminster and Consensus systems.
Westminster system
* The
Westminster system is usually found in the
Commonwealth of Nations and countries which were influenced by the British political tradition. These parliaments tend to have a more adversarial style of debate and the
plenary session
A plenary session or plenum is a session of a conference which all members of all parties are to attend. Such a session may include a broad range of content, from keynotes to panel discussions, and is not necessarily related to a specific sty ...
of parliament is more important than committees. Some parliaments in this model are elected using a
plurality voting system
Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member pe ...
(
first past the post), such as the United Kingdom, Canada, India and Malaysia, while others use some form of
proportional representation, such as Ireland and New Zealand. The
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
The term of members of the ...
is elected using
instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the U ...
, while the
Senate is elected using proportional representation through
single transferable vote. Regardless of which system is used, the voting systems tend to allow the voter to vote for a named candidate rather than a
closed list
Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some inf ...
.
Consensus system
* The Western European parliamentary model (e.g., Spain, Germany) tends to have a more consensual debating system and usually has semi-circular debating chambers. Consensus systems have more of a tendency to use
proportional representation with
open party lists than the Westminster Model legislatures. The committees of these Parliaments tend to be more important than the
plenary chamber. Some Western European countries' parliaments (e.g., in the
Netherlands,
Luxembourg and
Sweden) implement the principle of
dualism as a form of
separation of powers. In countries using this system, Members of Parliament have to resign their place in Parliament upon being appointed (or elected) minister. Ministers in those countries usually actively participate in parliamentary debates, but are not entitled to vote.
Election of the head of government
Implementations of the parliamentary system can also differ as to how the prime minister and government are appointed and whether the government needs the explicit approval of the parliament, rather than just the absence of its disapproval. Some countries such as India also require the prime minister to be a member of the legislature, though in other countries this only exists as a convention.
* The head of state appoints a prime minister who will likely have majority support in parliament. While in practice most prime ministers under the
Westminster system (including Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) are the leaders of the largest party in parliament, technically the appointment of the prime minister is a prerogative exercised by the monarch, the governor-general, or the president.
* The head of state appoints a prime minister who must gain a vote of confidence within a set time. Examples: Italy, Thailand.
* The head of state appoints the leader of the political party holding a plurality of seats in parliament as prime minister. For example, in Greece, if no party has a majority, the leader of the party with a plurality of seats is given an ''exploratory mandate'' to receive the confidence of the parliament within three days. If this is not possible, then the leader of the party with the second-highest seat number is given the ''exploratory mandate''. If this fails, then the leader of the third-largest party is given it, and so on.
* The head of state ''nominates'' a candidate for prime minister who is then submitted to parliament for approval before appointment. Example: Spain, where the King sends a proposal to the
Congress of Deputies
The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid.
It has 350 members elect ...
for approval. Also, Germany where under the
German Basic Law (constitution) the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
votes on a candidate nominated by the federal president. In these cases, parliament can choose another candidate who then would be appointed by the head of state.
* Parliament ''nominates'' a candidate whom the head of state is constitutionally obliged to appoint as prime minister. Example: Japan, where the
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (emp ...
appoints the
Prime Minister on the nomination of the
National Diet. Also Ireland, where the
President of Ireland appoints the
Taoiseach on the nomination of
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland reads: ...
.
* A public officeholder (other than the head of state or their representative) ''nominates'' a candidate, who, if approved by parliament, is appointed as prime minister. Example: Under the Swedish
Instrument of Government (1974), the power to appoint someone to form a government has been moved from the monarch to the Speaker of Parliament and the parliament itself. The speaker nominates a candidate, who is then elected to prime minister (''statsminister'') by the parliament if an absolute majority of the members of parliament does not vote against the candidate (i.e. they can be elected even if more members of parliament vote ''No'' than ''Yes).''
* Direct election by popular vote. Example: Israel, 1996–2001, where the prime minister was elected in a general election, with no regard to political affiliation, and whose procedure can also be described as of a
semi-parliamentary system
Semi-parliamentary system can refer to either a prime-ministerial system, in which voters simultaneously vote for both members of legislature and the prime minister, or to a system of government in which the legislature is split into two part ...
.
Power of dissolution and call for election
Furthermore, there are variations as to what conditions exist (if any) for the government to have the right to dissolve the parliament:
* In some countries, especially those operating under a
Westminster system, such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, the prime minister has the ''de facto'' power to call an election, at will. In Spain, the prime minister is the only person with the ''de jure'' power to call an election, granted by Article 115 of the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princi ...
.
* In Israel, parliament may vote to dissolve itself in order to call an election, or the prime minister may call a snap election with presidential consent if his government is deadlocked. A non-passage of the budget automatically calls a snap election.
* Other countries only permit an election to be called in the event of a
vote of no confidence against the government, a supermajority vote in favour of an early election or prolonged deadlock in parliament. These requirements can still be circumvented. For example, in Germany in 2005,
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...
deliberately allowed his government to lose a confidence motion, in order to call an early election.
* In Sweden, the government may call a snap election at will, but the newly elected
Riksdag is only elected to fill out the previous Riksdag's term. The last time this option was used was in
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
.
* In
Greece, a general election is called if the
Parliament fails to elect a new
head of state when his or her term ends. In January 2015,
this constitutional provision was exploited by
Syriza
The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...
to
trigger a snap election, win it and oust rivals
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinc ...
from power
* In Italy the government has no power to call a snap election. A snap election can only be called by the
head of state, following a consultation with the presidents of both houses of parliament.
* Norway is unique among parliamentary systems in that the
Storting always serves the whole of its four-year term.
* Australia uniquely under certain conditions allows the
prime minister to request of the
Governor General a
double dissolution, whereby all rather than only half of the
Senate, is dissolved - in effect electing all of the Parliament simultaneously.
The parliamentary system can be contrasted with a
presidential system which operates under a stricter separation of powers, whereby the executive does not form part of—nor is appointed by—the parliamentary or legislative body. In such a system, parliaments or congresses do not select or dismiss heads of governments, and governments cannot request an early dissolution as may be the case for parliaments (although the parliament may still be able to dissolve itself, as in the case of
Cyprus). There also exists the
semi-presidential system that draws on both presidential systems and parliamentary systems by combining a powerful president with an executive responsible to parliament: for example, the
French Fifth Republic.
Parliamentarianism may also apply to
regional
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
and
local governments. An example is the city of
Oslo, which has an executive council (Byråd) as a part of the parliamentary system. The
devolved nations of the United Kingdom are also parliamentary and which, as with the
UK Parliament, may hold early elections - this has only occurred with regards to the
Northern Ireland Assembly in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a se ...
and
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
.
Anti-defection law
A few parliamentary democratic nations such as
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. have enacted laws which prohibit floor crossing or switching parties after the election. Under these laws, elected representatives will lose their seat in the parliament if they go against their party in votes.
In the UK parliament, a member is free to cross over to a different party. In Canada and Australia, there are no restraints on legislators switching sides.
Parliamentary sovereignty
A few parliamentary democracies such as the
United Kingdom and
New Zealand have weak or non-existent checks on the legislative power of their Parliaments, where any newly approved Act shall take precedence over all prior Acts. All laws are equally unentrenched, wherein
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompa ...
may not outright annul nor amend them, as frequently occurs in other parliamentary systems like
Germany. Whilst the head of state for both nations (
Monarch, and or
Governor General) has the de-jure power to withhold
assent to any bill passed by their Parliament, this check has not been exercised in Britain since the
1708 Scottish Militia Bill.
Whilst both the UK and New Zealand have some Acts or parliamentary rules establishing
supermajorities or additional legislative procedures for certain legislation, such as previously with the
Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA), these can be bypassed through the enactment of another that amends or ignores these supermajorities away, such as with the
Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 - bypassing the 2/3rd supermajority required for an early dissolution under the FTPA -, which enabled the early dissolution for the
2019 general election.
Metrics
Parliamentarism metrics allow a quantitative comparison of the strength of parliamentary systems for individual countries. One parliamentarism metric is the Parliamentary Powers Index.
Advantages
Adaptability
Parliamentary systems like that found in the United Kingdom are widely considered to be more flexible, allowing rapid change in legislation and policy as long as there is a stable majority or coalition in parliament, allowing the government to have 'few legal limits on what it can do'
Due to the first-past-the-post voting method, this system produces the classic "Westminster Model" with the twin virtues of strong but responsive party government. This electoral system providing a strong majority in the House of Commons, paired with the fused power system results in a particularly powerful Government able to provide change and 'innovate'.
[
]
Scrutiny and accountability
The United Kingdom's fused power system is often noted to be advantageous with regards to accountability. The centralised government allows for more transparency as to where decisions originate from, this directly contrasts with the United States' system with former Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon
Clarence Douglas Dillon (born Clarence Douglass Dillon; August 21, 1909January 10, 2003) was an American diplomat and politician, who served as U.S. Ambassador to France (1953–1957) and as the 57th Secretary of the Treasury (1961–1965). He was ...
saying "the president blames Congress, the Congress blames the president, and the public remains confused and disgusted with government in Washington". Furthermore, ministers of the U.K. cabinet are subject to weekly Question Periods in which their actions/policies are scrutinised; no such regular check on the government exists in the U.S. system.
Distribution of power
A 2001 World Bank study found that parliamentary systems are associated with less corruption.
Calling of elections
In his 1867 book '' The English Constitution'', Walter Bagehot praised parliamentary governments for producing serious debates, for allowing for a change in power without an election, and for allowing elections at any time. Bagehot considered the four-year election rule of the United States to be unnatural, as it can potentially allow a president who has disappointed the public with a dismal performance in the second year of his term to continue on until the end of his four-year term. Under a parliamentary system, a prime minister that has lost support in the middle of his term can be easily replaced by his own peers with a more popular alternative, as the Conservative Party in the UK did with successive prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
, Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Fo ...
, and Liz Truss
Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fi ...
.
Although Bagehot praised parliamentary governments for allowing an election to take place at any time, the lack of a definite election calendar can be abused. Under some systems, such as the British, a ruling party can schedule elections when it believes that it is likely to retain power, and so avoid elections at times of unpopularity. (from 2011, election timing in the UK was partially fixed under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which was repealed by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022.) Thus, by a shrewd timing of elections, in a parliamentary system, a party can extend its rule for longer than is feasible in a presidential system. This problem can be alleviated somewhat by setting fixed dates for parliamentary elections, as is the case in several of Australia's state parliaments. In other systems, such as the Dutch and the Belgian, the ruling party or coalition has some flexibility in determining the election date. Conversely, flexibility in the timing of parliamentary elections can avoid periods of legislative gridlock that can occur in a fixed period presidential system. In any case, voters ultimately have the power to choose whether to vote for the ruling party or someone else.
Disadvantages and criticisms
Incomplete separation of power
According to Arturo Fontaine parliamentary systems in Europe have yielded very powerful heads of government which is rather what is often criticized about presidential systems. Fontaine compares United Kingdom's Margaret Thatcher to the United States' Ronald Reagan noting the former head of government was much more powerful despite governing under a parliamentary system. The rise to power of Viktor Orbán
Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 2 ...
in Hungary has been claimed to show how parliamentary systems can be subverted.[ The situation in Hungary was according to Fontaine allowed by the deficient separation of powers that characterises parliamentary and semi-presidential systems.][ Once Orbán's party got 70% of the vote in a single election there was no institution that was able to balance the concentration of power.][ In a presidential system it would require two or three separate elections to create the same effect; the presidential election, the lower chamber election and the upper chamber election. Fontaine also notes as a warning example of the flaws of parliamentary systems that if the United States would have had a parliamentary system Donald Trump could, as head of government, have dissolved the United States Congress.][
]
Legislative flip-flopping
The ability for strong parliamentary governments to push legislation through with the ease of fused power systems such as in the United Kingdom, whilst positive in allowing rapid adaptation when necessary e.g. the nationalisation of services during the world wars, in the opinion of some commentators does have its drawbacks. The flip-flopping of legislation back and forth as the majority in parliament changed between the Conservatives and Labour over the period 1940–1980, contesting over the nationalisation and privatisation of the British Steel Industry resulted in major instability for the British steel sector.[
]
Political fragmentation
In R. Kent Weaver's book ''Are Parliamentary Systems Better?'', he writes that an advantage of presidential systems is their ability to allow and accommodate more diverse viewpoints. He states that because "legislators are not compelled to vote against their constituents on matters of local concern, parties can serve as organizational and roll-call cuing vehicles without forcing out dissidents."[
]
Democratic unaccountability
All current parliamentary democracies see the indirect election or appointment of their head of government. As a result, the electorate has limited power to remove or install the person or party wielding the most power. Although strategic voting
Strategic voting, also called tactical voting, sophisticated voting or insincere voting, occurs in voting systems when a voter votes for another candidate or party than their ''sincere preference'' to prevent an undesirable outcome. For example, ...
may enable the party of the prime minister to be removed or empowered, this can be at the expense of voters first preferences in the many parliamentary systems utilising first past the post, or having no effect in dislodging those parties who consistently form part of a coalition government, as with the current Dutch prime minister
The prime minister of the Netherlands ( nl, Minister-president van Nederland) is the head of the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands. Although the monarch is the ''de jure'' head of government, the prime minister ''de facto'' ...
Mark Rutte and his party the VVD
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a conservative-liberal Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingstoke (Palgrave) p.49 political party i ...
's 4 terms in office, despite their peak support reaching only 26.6% in 2012, earning him the epithet 'Teflon Rutte' for his ability to survive elections.
Countries
Africa
Americas
Asia
Europe
Oceania
See also
* Law reform
Law reform or legal reform is the process of examining existing laws, and advocating and implementing change in a legal system, usually with the aim of enhancing justice or efficiency.
Intimately related are law reform bodies or law commissions, ...
* List of legislatures by country
This is a list of legislatures by country. A " legislature" is the generic name for the national parliaments and congresses that act as a plenary general assembly of representatives and that have the power to legislate. All entities included ...
* List of political systems in France
* Parliament in the Making
Parliament in the Making was a programme of events organised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to commemorate a series of anniversaries in 2015 including:
* the sealing of ''Magna Carta'', on 15 June 1215, 800 years earlier
* the first repr ...
* Parliamentary leader
* Rule according to higher law
* Rule of law
* Parliamentary monarchy
* Parliamentary republic
* Strengthened parliamentary system
A strengthened parliamentary system (), also referred to as an enhanced and strengthened parliamentary system (), is a form of government conceived by certain Turkish opposition parties, such as the Republican People's Party, the Good Party, the ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parliamentary System
Parliamentary procedure
Liberalism
Political terminology
Types of democracy