FREE ESSAY ON PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY

PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY

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.
Bibliography
Work cited 
Barrons. Barron's Regents Exams and Answers-Global Studies. New York: Barrons educational
series,1998