Parliamentary Government Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Parliamentar y government refers to a specific system of governance found across many parts of the democratic world. Most stable democracies have parliamentary systems of government, including Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, and most Western European countries. The United Kingdom’s Westminster model is an example of parliamentary government. Among newer democracies, parliamentary forms of government are dominant in southern, central, and Easter n Europe, and have been adopted by former British colonies such as Malaysia and Jamaica. While parliaments or similar types of legislative assemblies may function under authoritarian rule, they do not generally constitute the supreme governmental authority in nondemocratic regimes.

Parliamentary Government Structure

Parliamentary government has at least four distinguishing, interrelated features that set it apart from presidential forms of government. First, unscheduled general elections are held periodically, allowing voters in a parliamentary system to elect the legislature or parliament. They do not directly elect the government or core executive. Second, the government is then formed out of the dominant group in parliament, generally made up of one or more political parties, with the consent of the legislature. The resulting overlap in membership between parliament and the government means that there is no formal separation of powers between legislature and executive, as with presidential systems of government. Generally, a separate, independent head of state—often a constitutional monarch or figurehead president with a limited set of ceremonial rather than substantive powers—formally approves the new government. Governments in parliamentary systems may either hold a majority or a minority of seats in the legislature. Minority governments are most likely in situations where no one party receives more than fifty percent of the seats in parliament, but conditions favorable for forming a coalition government are lacking. Governments in parliamentary systems may also be either single party or multiparty in nature, with multiparty or coalition governments common in countries where the electoral system tends to lead to more than two or three political parties represented in the parliament.

Third, the core executive in a parliamentary system, referred to as the cabinet, is plural in nature. This means that it is formed out of a designated number of parliamentary representatives belonging to the governing party or coalition, and consists of a prime minister or chancellor as head of government, and a number of other cabinet ministers who take on primary responsibility for specific policy areas. In parliamentary systems, the prime minister or chancellor has historically been considered the “first among equals” in the cabinet, rather than a supreme leader, although there is an observable tendency in a number of countries toward the “presidentialization” of parliamentary politics in which power is increasingly concentrated. Fourth, since there is an overlap in membership between the legislature and the executive, and government power rests on the consent of the legislature, parliamentary governments can be dismissed by a no-confidence vote on the part of the legislature. A dissolution of government is more likely if the governing party or coalition forms a minority government or has a slim and unstable majority in the parliament. Consequently, unlike presidential systems, there are no fixed election dates in parliamentary systems. However, most countries with parliamentary systems of government hold regular general elections every three to five years, depending on what is mandated by electoral legislation, with the possibility of early elections occurring in the case of government collapse.

Parliamentary systems may be unicameral or bicameral, meaning that they may have either one or two chambers of parliament. In many parliamentary systems, the upper house has comparatively less influence over legislation than the larger, lower house of parliament. Over time, there has been an increasing tendency in such parliamentary systems to abolish the upper house or limit its powers. New Zealand opted to abolish an already weak and ineffectual upper house in 1952, while the United Kingdom has recently moved to replace its traditionally hereditary House of Lords largely with politically appointees. In some federal countries with parliamentary systems, including Australia, Canada, Germany, and Malaysia, the upper house represents subnational units such as states or territories, much as is the case in the United States, and is thus less vulnerable to attempts to further limit its powers.

Variations And Criticisms

An important variation on parliamentary government, usually referred to as semi-presidentialism, blends elements of parliamentarianism and presidentialism, creating a hybrid system in the process. Semi-presidential systems divide executive powers between the prime minister and cabinet on one hand, and a separately elected president on the other. This model is most closely associated with the constitution of the French Fifth Republic, adopted in 1958, with similar models also adopted in Portugal and Finland. The Republic of Ireland is also sometimes considered a case of semi-presidentialism after the French model, although none of these three European countries has gone as far as France in concentrating power in the hands of the president. A number of the new democracies in central and Eastern Europe have also opted for semi-presidentialism.

Critics of parliamentary government argue that since voters do not directly elect the political executive, there is a lack of direct democratic accountability, since it is usually possible for political parties or cabinets to replace their leaders, and hence the prime minister or chancellor, in such systems. Second, it is argued that since there is an overlap in membership between the legislative and executive branches of government, parliamentary systems are not based on the concept of a separation of powers and thus lack the strict system of checks and balances attributed to presidential systems. Advocates of parliamentary government counter this by arguing that this helps avoid political deadlock, which is frequently experienced in presidential systems. Third, critics argue that parliamentary government, since it lacks fixed electoral cycles and makes governments dependent on the confidence of the legislature, is prone to instability. However, regular government collapse ahead of scheduled general elections rarely happens in mature parliamentary democracies, and disintegrations often reflect upon a fragmented party system rather than the parliamentary mode of government itself. Some countries, most notably Italy, have reformed their electoral systems in order to reduce the number of parties represented in parliament, and thus the likelihood of instability. Advocates of parliamentary government also argue that the system is superior to presidentialism since, especially in situations of minority or coalition government, it encourages compromise between political parties or factions and increases policy flexibility as a result.

Bibliography:

Elgie, Robert, ed. Semi-presidentialism in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Lijphart, Arend, ed. Parliamentary versus Presidential Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Linz, Juan J. “The Perils of Presidentialism.” Journal of Democracy 1, no. 1 (1990): 51–69.
Olson, David M. Democratic Legislative Institutions: A Comparative View. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1994.
Poguntke,Thoman, and Paul Webb. The Presidentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
von Beyme, Klaus. Parliamentary Democracy: Democratization, Destabilization, Reconsolidation, 1989–1999. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.

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