Parliamentary System of Government
Parliamentary System of Government
A parliamentary system of government means that the executive branch of government has the direct or indirect support of the parliament. This support is usually shown by a vote of confidence. The relationship between the executive and the legislature in a parliamentary system is called responsible government.
Map of different parliamentary systems. Orange color: Parliamentary republics where parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. Green color: Parliamentary republics with an executive president dependent on the legislature. Red color: Constitutional monarchies in which authority is vested in a parliament.
Note: A motion of confidence is a motion of support proposed by a government in a parliament or other assembly of elected representatives to give members of parliament (or other such assembly) a chance to register their confidence in a government. The motion is passed or rejected by means of a parliamentary vote (a vote of confidence). Governments often propose a motion of confidence to replace a motion of no confidence proposed by the opposition.
The separation of powers between the executive and law making branches is not as obvious as it is in a presidential system. There are different ways of balancing power between the three branches which govern the country (the executive (or ministers), the law makers and the judges).
Parliamentary systems usually have a head of government and a head of state. They change after their terms are over. The head of government is the prime minister, who has the real power. The head of state may be an elected president or, in the case of a constitutional monarchy, hereditary. Examples of countries which practice parliamentary systems are most of the countries which are democracies.
Definition:
A parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance of a state where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the confidence of the legislature, typically a parliament, and is also held accountable to that parliament. 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, the executive does not derive its democratic legitimacy from the legislature.
Countries with parliamentary democracies may be constitutional monarchies, where a monarch is the head of state while the head of government is almost always a member of parliament (such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Japan), or parliamentary republics, where a mostly ceremonial president is the head of state while the head of government is regularly from the legislature (such as Ireland, Germany, India and Italy). In a few parliamentary republics, such as Botswana, South Africa, and Suriname, 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 is the dominant form of government in Europe, with 32 of its 50 sovereign states being parliamentarian. It is also common in the Caribbean, 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.
This lesson is part of:
Structure and Systems of Government