Parliamentary Democracy Essay, Research Paper

A parliamentary democracy is a form of government ruled by a nationally elected legislature that is chosen in a free, open election system. The parliament holds supreme power, with the executive power held by a prime minister who is usually the leader of the majority political party, or coalition of parties, in the legislature. The prime minister remains in the legislature, selects a cabinet, formulates and administers policy and may be removed from power by the legislature. Parliamentary systems usually select a president with limited power to serve as chief of state. A strength of the democratic parliamentary system is that the people are given a voice in choosing their leaders based on their political beliefs. It provides for stability since the executive and legislative branches are of the same political party. A disadvantage of the parliamentary system is that it lacks checks and balances between the branches of government. Parliamentary systems can more readily become dictatorships, as happened in Germany in 1933. Another disadvantage is that effective government can be stalemated if there are too many political parties in the legislature that can?t agree on a prime minister. That happened in France under the Third Republic and in Italy since World War II. Among the many parliamentary systems in the world are Japan, Pakistan, Italy, Germany, Israel, United Kingdom, and Canada.

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Barrons. Barron’s Regents Exams and Answers-Global Studies. New York: Barrons educational series,1998