Parliamentary System

From Freepedia

"The Parliamentary system" refers to one of three legislative systems that exist in the world today. In general, the three main systems are Parliamentary, Presidential, and Mixed. Parliamentary systems of Government, as the name suggests, are led by a central Parliamentary body which has the final say on most, if not all, matters of state. Parliaments are bodies of one or two houses (unicameral or bicameral) which vary widely in composition, operation, and ability throughout the world. Although marked differences exist in the aforementioned respects, there are certain commonalities that they share.

Common Features of Parliaments

Head of State versus Chief of Government
In diplomatic terms, the "Head of State" is someone who "transcends party politics and attempts to represent the national identity as a whole." That is, the Head of State's job is to act as a symbol of government continuity and in many cases, tradition. By representing all of the people, a Head of State accepts the credentials of foreign ambassadors and promulgates laws passed by the Legislature acting in his or her name in the case of monarchy or in the name of the people in the case of a Constitutional Republic. Notice that the Head of State is not necessarily the Chief Executive, in Monarchies the Monarch is nominally the Chief Executive but has little, if any, discretionary powers in approving or vetoing a law or advising on how that law will be executed, such power lies with his ministers. The Head of Government is the individual who plays a political role and "has the responsibility for carrying on the business of government and for leading the team of ministers who control the central institutions of the government and the state." The Head of Government is therefore a political office which draws legitimacy from elections, unlike Monarch "Chiefs of State" who gain legitimacy from tradition and bloodline.

In Parliamentary sytems, the Chief of State and the Head of Government are separate, whereas in Presidential systems, the Chief of State is also the Head of Government. What follows is a brief list of Chiefs of State and their Chief Ministers (Head of Government) for comparison.

Country Name	Head of Government	Head of State
Australia	Prime Minister John Howard	HM Queen Elizabeth II represented by Governor-General Michael Jeffery
Canada	Prime Minister Paul Martin	HM Queen Elizabeth II represented by Governor General Michaelle Jean
Germany	Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder	President Horst Koehler
Israel	Prime Minister Arial Sharon	President Moshe Katzav
Japan	Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi	HIM Emperor Akihito
Kingdom of Spain	President Jose Luis Zapatero	HRH King Juan Carlos I
United Kingdom	Prime Minister Tony Blair	HM Queen Elizabeth II

A House Divided
Many parliaments feature a bicameral structure of operation. These two chambers are not always equal however, in some instances the power of the second "upper" chamber is limited in legislative matters. This limitation can be imposed by law, as in the United Kingdom, or by tradition, as in Canada. The House of Lords of the United Kingdom is a prime example of the limiting of legislative power by law, the House of Lords has little power over the legislative process. By the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, substantial limits on the ability of that body to reject legislation were put into place, and it also completely removed their ability to reject or alter finance bills, limiting their ability in financial matters to suggesting amendments and alterations.
The Senate of Canada did not lose its power to law, it instead gave up certain powers by rarely exercising them. The British North America Act, 1867 and the subsequent Constitution Act, 1982 give the Senate powers nearly equal to those of the House of Commons of Canada; however, by convention similar to that of the Westminster Parliament, money bills must originate in the House of Commons and the Senate cannot amend these bills, only accept or reject them. In practice, however, most powers of the Canadian Senate are not exercised due to the respect for the House of Commons as the body of the people and therefore defering to it on most matters as well a the fact that successive Governments have taken care to see that party loyalists are appointed to the Senate.
Countries with Parliaments are not always home to powerless "upper" chambers. The upper chamber of the Parliament of Australia, the Senate is in practice as well as in theory a powerful body, regularly rejecting legislation that it finds distasteful and in 1975 went so far as to disregard Westminster convention and reject the supply bills brought by the Government causing a constitutional crisis and prompting the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, to dismiss the Government and calling upon opposition leaders to form a caretaker government pending new elections. (See the Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975 for more information on this event.)

Party Loyalty
Parliaments are marked by the Party Loyalty integrated into the system, the majority of Members of Parliament are "back benchers" who are not members of important committees, nor in the cabinet, and serve to provide the numbers necessary for the Prime Minister and his government to remain in power. During election seasons, many vote not for their individual Member of Parliament but rather they vote for the party to which an individual is a candidate to elect the Party Leader as Prime Minister, because this is the case the Prime Minister and the opposition leaders exercise considerable control over the voting habits of members. Unlike Presidential and Mixed Systems, the outcome of a vote greatly affects the continuance of Government, if any substantial piece of legislation supported by the Majority is rejected by the legislature, it is counted as a No-Confidence Motion that requires the resignation of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, and in most cases, new elections. For this reason, in the Westminster System bills supported by the majority are labeled "confidence motions". Failure by a member of a party to vote with the Majority on a confidence motion can result in severe consequences such as; denial of speaking priveleges, removal from committee, and in notable breaches of party loyalty, ejection from party caucus forcing the member to sit as an independent.

Important Semantics
In parliamentary systems the word "Government" takes many different meaning and usages depending upon what aspect is being discussed. When discussing the concept of the government that operates and is sovereign over the nation, the usage would look like this: "The British Government is divided into many different agencies and divisions." In Parliamentary systems the word is also invoked to describe the current ruling party in the legislature, in this terminology it would be used like this: "Her Majesty's Government will introduce a bill to reauthorize certain provisions of the Leasing Acts."