Parliament is the central lawmaking body of Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and most other democratic countries. There also can be regional parliaments, such as the Scottish Parliament. Some parliaments are made up entirely of elected representatives. Others have both elected and appointed or hereditary members.
In a parliamentary government, the legislature elects the executive. By contrast, in the United States, the legislature and executive are elected separately. Congress does not elect the president. In a parliamentary government, the top officials are known as ministers (heads of government departments). The ministers make up an executive body called the cabinet. They are also members of parliament and do legislative work as well. The cabinet remains in power only as long as it has the support of a majority of the members in parliament.
Members of elected houses of parliament are chosen in various ways. In the United Kingdom, for example, the lower house of Parliament is made up of members elected in voting districts called constituencies. In Israel, parliament—the Knesset—is elected by voters across the country as a whole. Members of New Zealand’s Parliament are elected by a combination of these methods.
In most countries with a parliamentary government, the chief executive is called the prime minister. The prime minister is the leader of the largest party in parliament or of a coalition. A coalition is a temporary joining of parties that together have a majority of seats. The prime minister is formally appointed by the official head of state. The official head of state may be the king or queen of a monarchy or the president of a republic. In most parliamentary governments, the prime minister chooses members of his or her own political party to become ministers. The most important ministers belong to the cabinet. In parliamentary systems, there is constant debate over whether most power should rest with the cabinet or with the prime minister.
Members of parliament are elected to a term of office. At the end of the term, an election must be held. But an election may occur at any time short of a full term. For example, the cabinet may resign and a new election be held if parliament defeats a program the prime minister considers essential. An election also must occur if parliament votes “no confidence” in the cabinet.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom
Unlike the Congress of the United States, the Parliament of the United Kingdom does not obtain its authority from a written constitution. Instead, Parliament’s power developed gradually over many centuries and is based on tradition and custom as well as written law.
Parliament consists of the monarch (king or queen); the House of Commons, which often is called the Commons; and the House of Lords, which often is called the Lords. The power of the Commons greatly exceeds that of the monarch or of the Lords. Although the monarch has the power to reject legislation passed by Parliament, no British ruler has done so since the early 1700’s.
The House of Commons
is the more powerful parliamentary chamber in the United Kingdom, even though it is called the lower house. The term lower house refers to the branch of a lawmaking body considered closer to the people. The House of Commons, like nearly all other lower houses, consists of representatives elected by popular vote.
The House of Lords may delay, but not veto, legislation passed by the Commons. Money bills (bills concerned with imposing taxes or authorizing the spending of public money) passed by the Commons become law within one month, even without approval of the Lords. Nonmoney bills passed by the Commons in two consecutive sessions automatically become law after the second passage.
The House of Commons consists of members from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The prime minister and most Cabinet ministers are members of the Commons. Each member represents a constituency. Members are not required to live in the constituency they represent. Clergy of the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Church of Scotland, and the Roman Catholic Church cannot be elected to the Commons. Members of the House of Lords and certain government officials also are ineligible. Members of the House of Commons are paid an annual salary and receive administrative and travel expenses.
How members are elected.
Members of the Commons are chosen in a general election, in which all voters may participate. If a member dies or resigns, the constituency chooses a new delegate in a by-election.
Members of the Commons are elected to a term of five years, after which Parliament must be dissolved and another election held. However, an election may be called at any time, and most Parliaments sit (are in session) for less than five years. The prime minister may call for a new election if Parliament refuses to support the policies of the Cabinet. The prime minister also may call for a vote if he or she believes the political climate of the country favors another victory by his or her party.
How the House of Commons works.
The House of Commons sits for about 160 days annually. Most sessions last from midafternoon to evening, but some sessions continue through the night.
The Commons meets in a long room with rows of benches running along two sides. The speaker of the House of Commons sits at one end of the chamber. The speaker presides over the sessions, grants members the right to speak, and keeps order during debates. Members of the prime minister’s party, representing the Government, sit on the benches to the speaker’s right. Members of other parties supporting the Government also sit on that side of the room. Members of the second largest party, called the Opposition, and their supporters sit to the left of the speaker. The leaders of the Government and the Opposition are known as the front bench because they sit on the benches nearest the center of the chamber. Other members sit behind them and are known as the back bench.
The Government and the Opposition debate most proposed legislation. Other discussion between the two sides takes place at daily sessions called question time. During question time, the prime minister and other ministers must answer questions asked by members of Parliament, from both the Government and the Opposition.
The House of Lords
is called the upper house of Parliament, though it has less power than the House of Commons. The term upper house refers to the branch of a lawmaking body that is less subject to control by the voters. The Lords is not an elected assembly. Most of its members are honorary appointees. The main function of the Lords is to review bills passed by the House of Commons. The Lords may propose amendments to a bill, but they cannot defeat a bill and rarely change a bill’s basic principles.
The House of Lords includes hereditary peers, drawn from among nobles who inherited their titles; life peers, who are nominated by the prime minister; and lords spiritual. Lords spiritual are bishops of the Church of England. Life peers and lords spiritual are appointed to their seats for life.
The Houses of Parliament.
Parliament has met on the same site in London since 1547. For almost 300 years, it met in St. Stephen’s Chapel in the Palace of Westminster. A fire destroyed that building in 1834. The present Houses of Parliament were completed in 1860. Like the old building, they are known officially as the Palace of Westminster. In 1941, during World War II, a German bomb demolished the meeting chamber of the House of Commons. The present chamber was completed in 1950.
History.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom developed from a council of nobles and high-ranking clergy that advised the early kings of England. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, this informal advisory group became a formal assembly called the Great Council. It met three times yearly to help the king decide matters of government policy and to make laws.
During the early 1200’s, King John began to call knights elected from the shires (counties) to some meetings of the Great Council. He summoned the knights to obtain their approval of taxes he had levied because tax collection would be difficult without their cooperation. In the mid-1200’s, the English statesman Simon de Montfort enlarged the council, by then called Parliament, to include elected representatives from towns, shires, and boroughs.
By the mid-1300’s, the elected delegates began to meet separately from the nobles and bishops, and Parliament was divided into two houses. By the late 1300’s, the Commons obtained the right to consider tax legislation before it was discussed by the Lords. However, the Commons had no power to initiate legislation. It could only ask the monarch to grant requests. By the early 1400’s, the Commons gained the right to introduce bills.
Parliament gains strength.
As its role in government increased, Parliament demanded greater power. During the 1620’s, the struggle between Parliament and the king became bitter. In 1628, Parliament forced King Charles I to sign the Petition of Right, a document that limited royal power. However, Charles refused to obey the agreement. He did not allow Parliament to meet from 1629 until 1640, when he was forced to call a meeting to obtain funds. But Parliament refused to provide any money unless Charles obeyed the Petition of Right. He refused, and civil war broke out. In 1649, Parliament ordered Charles beheaded. The legislature, led by the Puritan general Oliver Cromwell, declared England a republic and ruled until 1653. Because the same Parliament had remained in session since 1640, it became known as the Long Parliament. Cromwell then ruled as lord protector until his death in 1658. In 1660, a new Parliament restored the monarchy.
The Bill of Rights of 1689 allowed Parliament to meet frequently and have freedom of speech during debates. It also confirmed the right of the Commons to control financial legislation. By the early 1700’s, Parliament had gained almost total control over the monarchy. In 1707, the Act of Union joined the English Parliament, which included Welsh members, and the Scottish Parliament in the creation of Great Britain. In 1801, another Act of Union incorporated the Irish Parliament into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which lasted until 1922.
During the 1800’s, the membership of Parliament changed dramatically. In the early 1800’s, nobles and other wealthy landowners controlled most of the members of Parliament, including the House of Commons. Some districts with almost no voters had representation, while districts with large populations had none. Few citizens had the right to vote. In 1832, Parliament passed a reform act that distributed seats on the basis of population. The act also reduced the property requirements for voting to give most middle-class men, but no women, the right to vote. The Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 extended the vote to most adult males. In 1918, male suffrage (right to vote) was made universal. In 1928, women received full voting rights.
The decline of the House of Lords.
During the 1800’s, the two houses of Parliament remained nearly equal in power. Although the Commons had control over money bills, the Lords had the power to veto legislation. In 1909, the Lords rejected a budget approved by the Commons. A struggle broke out between the two houses of Parliament, which resulted in the Parliamentary Act of 1911. Under this act, the House of Lords lost its veto power. The Lords was permitted to delay money bills for only one month and nonmoney bills for two years. The Parliamentary Act of 1949 reduced to one year the length of time that the Lords could postpone nonmoney bills.
In 1999, legislation abolished the right of hereditary peers to inherit a seat in the Lords along with their title. Ninety-two hereditary peers, most of whom were elected by other hereditary peers or by the full House of Lords, continue to serve in the Lords. In 2009, the judicial function of the House of Lords ended. Twelve law lords, who formed the highest court in Britain, were replaced with a new Supreme Court for the United Kingdom.
Parliaments in other countries
The parliaments of Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa greatly resemble the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Most member states of the European Union have parliamentary governments, as do most democracies in the Caribbean region. 
The Canadian Parliament has two houses—the Senate and the House of Commons. Senators are appointed by the governor general and have less power than do the elected members of the House of Commons. The Parliament of Australia is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of both houses are elected. Only the House of Representatives has the power to introduce or amend money bills. India’s Parliament consists of the president and two houses—the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha is the more important of the two houses. New Zealand’s Parliament consists of one house, the House of Representatives, whose members are elected. Ireland’s national parliament, called the Oireachtas, consists of the president; Dáil Éireann, the supreme lawmaking body; and Seanad Éireann, the Senate. South Africa’s Parliament consists of the National Assembly, whose members are elected by the people, and the National Council of Provinces, whose members are chosen by the provincial legislatures. The Althing of Iceland, the world’s oldest continuous parliament, was formed in A.D. 930.
