Parliamentary opposition is a form of

political opposition In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government (or, in American English, the administration), party or group in political control of a city, region, state, coun ...

to a designated government, particularly in a

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

-based

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their Election, democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of t ...

. This article uses the term ''

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

'' 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 area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

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 Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

". In

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

assemblies, where the tendency to gravitate into two major

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

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

debating chamber A debate chamber is a room for conducting the business of a deliberative assembly or otherwise for debating. When used as the meeting place of a legislature, a debate chamber may also be known as a council chamber, legislative chamber, assembly ...

. 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 In sociology, tokenism is the social practice of making a perfunctory and symbolic effort towards the equitable inclusion of members of a minority group, especially by recruiting people from under-represented social-minority groups in order for th ...

. In some cases, in more authoritarian countries, 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 Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, 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 Question Period (QP; ), known officially as Oral Questions (), occurs each sitting day in the House of Commons of Canada—similarly in provincial legislatures—in which members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (includin ...

, during which the opposition (and the Parliament generally) can ask questions of government ministers.

References

{{Reflist Legislatures Westminster system

See also

References