(Redirected from Parliamentary government):''This article is about the legislative institution. For alternative meanings, see:
Parliament (disambiguation).''
A 'parliament' is a
legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the
Westminster system modeled after that of the
United Kingdom. The name is derived from the
French ''
parlement'', the action of ''parler'' (to speak): a ''parlement'' is a talk, a discussion, hence a meeting (an assembly, a court) where people discuss matters.
Parliamentary government
Legislatures called parliaments typically operate under a
parliamentary system of government in which the
executive is constitutionally answerable to the parliament. This can be contrasted with a
presidential system, on the model of the
United States'
congressional system, which operate under a stricter
separation of powers whereby the executive does not form part of, nor is appointed by, the parliamentary or legislative body. Typically, congresses do not select or dismiss
heads of governments, and governments cannot request an early dissolution as may be the case for parliaments. Some states have a
semi-presidential system which combines a powerful president with an executive responsible to parliament.
Parliaments may consist of ''
chambers'' or ''houses'', and are usually either
bicameral or
unicameral—although more complex models exist, or have existed (''see
Tricameralism'').
The
lower house is almost always the originator of legislation, and the
upper house is usually the body that offers the "second look" and decides whether to
veto or approve the bills.
A parliament's lower house is usually composed of at least 200 members in countries with populations of over 3 million. A notable exception is
Australia, which has only 150 members in the
lower house despite having a population of over 20 million.
The number of seats may exceed 400 in very large countries, especially in the case of
unitary states. The upper house customarily has 20, 50, or 100 seats, almost always significantly fewer than the lower house (the British
House of Lords is an exception).
A nation's
prime minister ("PM") is almost always the leader of the majority party in the lower house of parliament, but only holds his or her office as long as the "confidence of the house" is maintained. If members of parliament lose faith in the leader for whatever reason, they can often call a
vote of no confidence and force the PM to resign. This can be particularly dangerous to a government when the distribution of seats is relatively even, in which case a new election is often called shortly thereafter.
Origins of parliamentary government
:''See
History of Parliamentarism''
England
Main articles: Parliament of England
The
Curia Regis in
England was a council of tenants-in-chief and
ecclesiastics that advised the
King of England on legislative matters. It replaced its
Anglo-Saxon predecessor, the
Witenagemot, a popular assembly that developed into a sort of crown council, after the
Norman invasion of 1066.
William of Normandy brought to England the
feudal system of his native
Normandy, and sought the advice of the
curia regis, before making laws. This body is the germ from which Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the
Privy Council and Cabinet have sprung. Of these, the legislature is formally the
High Court of Parliament; judges sit in the
Supreme Court of Judicature; and only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court.
The tenants-in-chief often struggled with their spiritual counterparts and with the King for power. In 1215, they secured from
John the
Magna Carta, which established that the King may not levy or collect any taxes (except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed), save with the consent of a council. It was also established that the most important tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics be summoned to the council by personal writs from the Sovereign, and that all others be summoned to the council by general writs from the
sheriffs of their counties. Modern government has its origins in the Curia Regis; parliament descends from the Great Council later known as the ''parliamentum'' established by
Magna Carta.
The first
English Parliament was formed during the reign of
King Henry III in the 13th century. In 1265,
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, who was in rebellion against
Henry III, summoned a parliament of his supporters without any or prior royal authorisation. The
archbishops,
bishops,
abbots,
earls and
barons were summoned, as were two
knights from each shire and two
burgesses from each
borough. Knights had been summoned to previous councils, but the representation of the boroughs was unprecedented. De Montfort's scheme was formally adopted by
Edward I in the so-called "
Model Parliament" of 1295. At first, each
estate debated independently; by the reign of
Edward III, however, Parliament had been separated into two Houses and was assuming recognisably its modern form.
France
Originally, there was only the
Parlement of
Paris, born out of the Curia Regis in 1307, and located inside the medieval royal palace, now the
Paris Hall of Justice. The jurisdiction of the ''Parlement'' of Paris covered the entire kingdom. In the
thirteenth century, judicial functions were added. In 1443, following the turmoil of the
Hundred Years' War, King
Charles VII of France granted
Languedoc its own ''parlement'' by establishing the ''Parlement'' of
Toulouse, the first ''parlement'' outside of Paris, whose jurisdiction extended over the most part of southern
France. From 1443 until the
French Revolution several other ''parlements'' were created in some provinces of France.
All the ''parlements'' could issue regulatory decrees for the application of royal edicts or of customary practices; they could also refuse to register laws that they judged contrary to fundamental law or simply as being untimely. Parliamentary power in France was suppressed more so than in England as a result of
absolutism, and parliaments were eventually overshadowed by the larger
Estates General, up until the
French Revolution, when the
National Assembly became the lower house of France's bicameral legislature. (The
Sénat being the upper house)
Scotland
From the 10th century the
Kingdom of Alba was ruled by chiefs (''toisechs'') and subkings (''
mormaers'') under the
suzerainty, real or nominal, of a
High King. Popular assemblies, as in
Ireland, were involved in law-making, and sometimes in king-making, although the introduction of
tanistry—naming a successor in the lifetime of a king—made the second less than common. These early assemblies cannot be considered "parliaments" in the later sense of the word, and were entirely separate from the later, Norman-influenced, institution.
The
Parliament of Scotland evolved during the
Middle Ages from the
King's Council of Bishops and Earls. The unicameral parliament is first found on record, referred to as a ''
colloquium'', in 1235 at
Kirkliston (a village now in
Edinburgh).
By the early fourteenth century the attendance of knights and
freeholders had become important, and from 1326
burgh commissioners attended. Consisting of the Three Estates; of
clerics, lay
tenants-in-chief and burgh commissioners sitting in a single chamber, the Scottish parliament acquired significant powers over particular issues. Most obviously it was needed for consent for
taxation (although taxation was only raised irregularly in Scotland in the
medieval period), but it also had a strong influence over
justice,
foreign policy,
war, and all manner of other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical, social or economic. Parliamentary business was also carried out by "sister" institutions, before c. 1500 by
General Council and thereafter by the
Convention of Estates. These could carry out much business also dealt with by Parliament — taxation, legislation and policy-making — but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament.
The parliament, which is also referred to as the Estates of Scotland, the Three Estates, the Scots Parliament or the auld Scots Parliament (
Eng: ''old''), met until the
Acts of Union merged the Parliament of Scotland and the
Parliament of England, creating the new
Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.
Poland
Chamber of the Sejm showing
hemicycle seating pattern.
According to the ''
Chronicles'' of
Gallus Anonymus, the first legendary
Polish ruler,
Siemowit, who began the
Piast Dynasty, was chosen by a ''
wiec''. The ''veche'' (
Russian: вече,
Polish: wiec) was a popular assembly in medieval
Slavic countries, and in late medieval period, a parliament. The idea of the ''wiec'' led in 1182 to the development of the Polish parliament, the ''
Sejm''.
The term "sejm" comes from an old
Polish expression denoting a meeting of the populace. The power of early sejms grew between 1146–1295, when the power of individual rulers waned and various councils and wiece grew stronger. The history of the national Sejm dates back to 1182. Since the 14th century irregular sejms (described in various
Latin sources as ''contentio generalis, conventio magna, conventio solemna, parlamentum, parlamentum generale, dieta'' or Polish ''sejm walny'') have been called by Polish kings. From 1374, the king had to receive sejm permission to raise
taxes. The General Sejm (Polish ''Sejm Generalny'' or ''Sejm Walny''), first convoked by the king
John I Olbracht in 1493 near
Piotrków, evolved from earlier regional and provincial meetings (''
sejmiks.'' It followed most closely the ''sejmik generally'', which arose from the 1454
Nieszawa Statutes, granted to the
szlachta by King
Casimir IV the Jagiellonian. From 1493 forward, indirect elections were repeated every two years. With the development of the unique Polish
Golden Liberty the Sejm's powers increased.
The
Commonwealth's general parliament consisted of three estates: the King of Poland (who also acted as the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Russia/Ruthenia, Prussia, Mazovia, etc.), the Senat (consisting of Ministers, Palatines, Castellans and Bishops) and the Chamber of Envoys—circa 170 peers acting on behalf of their Lands and sent by Land Parliaments. Also representatives of selected cities but without any voting powers. Since 1573 at a royal election all peers of the
Commonwealth could participate in the Parliament and become the King's electors.
Nordic and Germanic development
A ''
thing'' or ''ting'' (
Old Norse and
Icelandic: ''þing''; other modern
Scandinavian: ''ting'') was the governing assembly in
Germanic societies, made up of the free men of the community and presided by
lawspeakers. Today the term lives on in the official names of national legislatures, political and judicial institutions in the North-Germanic countries. In the
Yorkshire and former
Danelaw areas of England, which were subject to much Norse invasion and settlement, the
wapentake was another name for the same institution.
The thing was the assembly of the free men of a country, province or a
hundred ''(hundare/härad/herred)''. There were consequently, hierarchies of things, so that the local things were represented at the thing for a larger area, for a province or
land. At the thing, disputes were solved and political decisions were made. The place for the thing was often also the place for public religious rites and for commerce.
The thing met at regular intervals, legislated, elected
chieftains and
kings, and judged according to the law, which was memorized and recited by the "
law speaker" (the judge).
Later national diets with chambers for different estates developed, e.g. in Sweden and in Finland (which was part of Sweden until 1809), each with a
House of Knights for the nobility. In both these countries, the national parliaments are now called
riksdag (in Finland also ''eduskunta''), a word used since the Middle Ages and equivalent of the German word
Reichstag.
Russia
The name of the parliament of
Russia is the
Federal Assembly of Russia. The term for its lower house,
Duma (which is better known than the Federal Assembly itself, and is often mistaken for the entirety of the parliament) comes from the Russian word ''думать'' (''dumat''), "to think". The 'Boyar Duma' was an advisory council to the
grand princes and
tsars of
Muscovy. The Duma was discontinued by
Peter the Great, who transferred its functions to the
Governing Senate in 1711.
Novgorod and Pskov
The ''veche'' was the highest legislature and judicial authority in the republic of
Novgorod until 1478. In its sister state,
Pskov, a separate veche operated until 1510.
Since the Novgorod revolution of 1137 ousted the ruling
grand prince, the veche became the supreme state authority. After the reforms of 1410, the veche was restructured on a model similar to that of
Venice, becoming the
Commons chamber of the parliament. Аn upper
Senate-like Council of Lords was also created, with title membership for all former city magistrates. Some sources indicate that veche membership may have became full-time, and parliament deputies were now called ''vechniks''. It is recounted that the Novgorod assembly could be summoned by anyone who rung the veche
bell, although it is more likely that the common procedure was more complex. This bell was a symbol of republican sovereignty and independence. The whole population of the city—boyars, merchants, and common citizens—then gathered at
Yaroslav's Court. Separate assemblies could be held in the districts of Novgorod. In Pskov the veche assembled in the court of the Trinity cathedral.
India
Sansad Bhavan, The Parliament of India
In very ancient
India, during the
Vedic civilization, there are mentions of two Parliament-like gatherings of the Indo-Aryan kingdoms called the ''Sabha'' and the ''Samiti''. During the time of the
Buddha, many states were even tribal republics, called the ''
Sanghas''. The Sabha has been interpreted by the historians as a representative assembly of the elect—the important men of the clan, which ran day-to-day business with the king. The Samiti seems to be a gathering of ''all'' the male members of the kingdom, and probably convened only for the ratification/election of a new king. The two largely democratic institutions, which kept a check on the absolutism of the king, were given a sacred position, and have been called the daughters of the deity
Prajapati in the Vedas, the holiest of all Hindu scriptures and the earliest Indo-European literature. However, these democratic institutions became weaker as republics became larger and elected chieftainship moved towards hereditary and absolute monarchy. The Sabha and the Samiti bear almost no mention in later literature. After this, India would not have any democratic legislature till the British times, culminating in its modern democratic Parliament (whose two Houses still bear the name of ''Sabha'').
Spain
Corgreso de los Diputados, Parliament of Spain
:''Main article
Cortes Generales''
Although there are documented councils held in 873, 1020, 1050 and 1063, there was no representation of commoners. For so, the considered as first Spanish Parliament (with the presence of commoners) - known as
Cortes- is held in the
Kingdom of Leon in 1118. Prelates, nobles and commoners remained separated in the three estates within the Cortes. In this meeting new laws were approved to protect commoners against the arbitrarities of nobles, prelates and the king. This important set of laws is known as the "Carta Magna Leonesa"
Following this event, new Cortes will appear in the other different kingdoms:
Catalonia in 1218, the
Kingdom of Castile in 1250,
Kingdom of Aragon in 1274,
Kingdom of Valencia in 1283 and
Kingdom of Navarre in 1300.
After the union of the Kingdoms of Leon and Castile under the
Crown of Castile, their Cortes will be united as well in 1258. The Castillian Cortes had representatives from Burgos, Toledo, León, Seville, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén, Zamora, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca, Cuenca, Toro, Valladolid, Soria, Madrid, Guadalajara and Granada (after 1492). The Cortes had powers to control the king spending and taxing. But, after the defeat of the communities (
Castilian War of the Communities) against the newly arrived
Habsburg emperor
Charles V in 1521, the Castillian Cortes lost its power and was reduced to a mere consultive entity.
The Cortes of the
Crown of Aragon kingdoms remained with their power to control the king spending regarding to the finances of those kingdoms. But after the
War of the Spanish Succession and the arrival of another royal house - the
Bourbons - in 1714 with
Philip V, their Cortes were suppressed ( Aragon and Valencia in 1707, Catalonia in 1714).
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Main articles: Parliament of the United Kingdom
The British Parliament is often referred to as the ''Mother of Parliaments'' (in fact a misquotation of
John Bright, who remarked in 1865 that "England is the Mother of Parliaments") because the
British Parliament has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its
Acts have created many other parliaments. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British "three-tier" model. Most countries in Europe and the
Commonwealth have similarly organized parliaments with a largely ceremonial
head of state who formally opens and closes parliament, a large elected lower house and a smaller, upper house.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom was originally formed in 1707 by the
Acts of Union that replaced the former parliaments of England and
Scotland—the
Irish Parliament was subsumed into the
Imperial Parliament in
1801.
In the United Kingdom, Parliament consists of the
House of Commons, the
House of Lords, and the
Monarch. The House of Commons is composed of over 600 members who are directly elected by British citizens to represent single-member constituencies. The leader of a Party that wins more than half the seats or less than half but can count on support of smaller parties to achieve enough support to pass law is invited by the Queen to form a government. Legally the Queen is the head of government and no business in Parliament can be taken without her authority. The House of Lords is a body of long-serving, unelected members: 92 of whom inherit their seats and 574 of whom have been appointed to lifetime seats.
Legislation can originate from either the Lords or the Commons. It is voted on in several distinct stages, called
readings, in each house. First reading is merely a formality. Second reading is where the bill as a whole is considered. Third reading is detailed consideration of clauses of the bill. In addition to the three readings a bill also goes through a committee stage where it is considered in great detail. Once the bill has been passed by one house it goes to the other and essentially repeats the process. If after the two sets of readings there are disagreements between the versions that the two houses passed it is returned to the first house for consideration of the amendments made by the second. If it passes through the amendment stage
Royal Assent is granted and the bill becomes law as an
Act of Parliament.
The House of Lords is the less powerful of the two houses as a result of the
Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949. These Acts removed the veto power of the Lords over a great deal of legislation. If a bill is certified by the
Speaker of the House of Commons as a
money bill (i.e. acts raising taxes and similar) then the Lords can only block it for a month. If an ordinary bill originates in the Commons the Lords can only block it for a maximum of one
session of Parliament. The exceptions to this rule are things like bills to prolong the life of a Parliament beyond five years. If a bill originates in the Lords then the Lords can block it for as long as they like.
In addition to functioning as the second chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords is also the final court of
appeal for much of the law of the United Kingdom—a combination of judicial and legislative function that recalls its origin in the Curia Regis.
List of parliaments
:''List is not exhaustive''
Contemporary national parliaments
:''See also:
list of national legislatures
★
Croatian Parliament
★
Parliament of Australia
:
★ The federal (Commonwealth) government of Australia has a
bicameral 'parliament', and each of
Australia's six states has a bicameral 'parliament' except for
Queensland, which has a unicameral parliament.
★
Parliament of Austria
★
Parliament of Canada
:
★ The federal government of Canada has a bicameral 'parliament', and each of
Canada's 10 provinces has a unicameral 'parliament'.
★
Parliament of Estonia
★
Parliament of the Faroe Islands (''Løgtingið'')
★
Parliament of the Fiji Islands
★
Parliament of Finland
★
Parliament of France (''Parlement'')
★
Parliament of Germany - The Bundestag
★
Greek parliament
★
Hungarian National Assembly (''Országgyűlés'')
★
Parliament of Iceland (The ''Althing'' is the oldest still-acting parliament in the
world, established at
Thingvellir in 930)
★
Parliament of India consisting of
Lok Sabha and
Rajya Sabha
★
Parliament of Ireland - the Oireachtas
★
Parliament of the Isle of Man - Tynwald (''Tinvaal'')
★
Parliament of Israel - The Knesset
★
Parliament of Italy (''Parlamento Italiano'')
The Romanian Palace of the Parliament in
Bucharest.
★
Parliament of Latvia
★
Parliament of Lithuania
★
Parliament of Malaysia
★
Parliament of Montenegro
★
Parliament of Morocco
★
Parliament of Nauru
★
Parliament of New Zealand
★
Parliament of the Netherlands
★
Parliament of Norway (''Storting'')
★
Parliment of Pakistan
★
Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)
★
Parliament of Romania (consisting of the
Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate)
★
National Assembly of Serbia (''Narodna Skupstina'')
★
Parliament of Singapore
★
Parliament of South Africa
★
Spanish Cortes
★
Parliament of Sri Lanka
★
Parliament of Sweden
★
Federal Assembly of Switzerland (''Bundesversammlung'', ''Assemblée fédérale'', ''Assemblea federale'')
★
Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago
★
Parliament of Nepal (recently reorganized)
★
Parliament of the United Kingdom
★
★
Scottish Parliament
Contemporary supranational parliaments
★
European Parliament
★
Pan-African Parliament
★
Central American Parliament
★
Latin American Parliament
Equivalent national legislatures
★
Majlis, e.g. in
Iran
★ in
Afghanistan:
Wolesi Jirga (elected, legislative lower house) and
Meshrano Jirga (mainly advisory, indirect representation); in special cases, e.g. as constituent assembly, a
Loya Jirga
Defunct
★
Parliament of Ireland (1200–1801)
★
Parliament of Southern Ireland (1921–1922)
★
Parliament of Northern Ireland (1921–1973)
★
People's Parliament (1940s)
Subnational parliaments
Australia
:''See
Parliaments of the Australian states and territories'
Belgium
In the federal (bicameral) kingdom of
Belgium, there is a curious asymmetrical constellation serving as directly elected legislatures for three "territorial" ''regions''—
Flanders (
Dutch),
Brussels (bilingual, certain peculiarities of competence, also the only region not comprising any of the 10 provinces) and
Wallonia (
French)—and three cultural ''communities''—Flemish (Dutch, competent in Flanders and for the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels), Francophone (French, for Wallonia and for Francophones in Brussels) and German (for speakers of that language in a few designated municipalities in the east of the Walloon Region, living alongside Francophones but under two different regimes)
★ Vlaams Parlement ("
Flemish Parliament"; originally styled Vlaamse Raad "Flemish Council") served both the Flemish Community (whose same it uses) and, in application of a Belgian constitutional option, of the region of Flanders (in all matters of regional competence, its decisions have no effect in Brussels)
★ Parliament of the French Community
★
parliament of the German Community
★
parliament of the Walloon region
★
parliament of the Brussels 'capital' region;
: within the capital's regional assembly however, there also exist two so-called ''Community Commissions'' (fixed numbers, not an automatic repartition of the regional assembly), a
Dutch-speaking one and a
Francophone one, for various matters split up by linguistic community but under Brussels' regional competence, and even 'joint community commissions' consisting of both for certain institutions that could be split up but are not.
Canada
:''See
Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories''
Denmark
★
Parliament of Greenland
★
Løgting
Finland
★
Parliament of Åland
Spain
:See:
List of Spanish regional legislatures
United Kingdom
★
Scottish Parliament
★
Welsh Assembly
★
Northern Ireland Assembly
See also
★
Parliamentary records
★
Delegated legislation
★
Global democracy
★
History of democracy
★
Inter-Parliamentary Union
★
Legislation
★
Parliamentary procedure
★
Witan
★
The International Association of Business and Parliament (IABP) Scottish Scheme
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