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 discussion. The term came to mean
a meeting at which such a discussion took place. It acquired its
modern meaning as it came to be used for the body of people (in an
institutional sense) who would meet to discuss matters of
state.
Parliament Government
Legislatures called parliaments 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).
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 the lower
house 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.
However, in case of general discontent with the head of government,
his replacement can be made very smoothly without all the
complications that it represents in the case of a Presidentialist
system.
Origins of parliamentary government
- See History of
Parliamentarism
India
Ancient Indian,
Vedic texts mention of two Parliament-like
gatherings of the Indo-Aryan kingdoms called the
Sabhā and the
Samiti. During the
time of the
Buddha, many states were
forms of 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 , with such
bodies as the
Central
Legislative Assembly, a step in the direction of the modern
democratic
Parliament of India,
the two Houses of which still bear the ancient name of
Sabha.
Caliphate
Traditional
Sunni Islamic lawyers agree that
shura, loosely translated as 'consultation of the
people', was a function of the
Caliphate,
where the
Majlis al Shura
(consultative council, or parliament) advised the caliph. The
importance of this is premised by the following verses of the
Qur'an:
The
majlis is also the means to elect a new
caliph. Al-Mawardi has written that members of the majlis should
satisfy three conditions: they must be just, they must have enough
knowledge to distinguish a good caliph from a bad one, and must
have sufficient wisdom and judgment to select the best caliph.
Al-Mawardi also said in emergencies when there is no caliphate and
no majlis, the people themselves should create a majlis, select a
list of candidates for caliph, then the majlis should select from
the list of candidates. Some modern interpretations of the role of
the Majlis al Shura include those by Islamist author
Sayyid Qutb and by
Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, the founder of a
transnational political movement devoted to the revival of the
Caliphate. In an analysis of the shura chapter of the Qur'an, Qutb
argued Islam requires only that the ruler consult with at least
some of the ruled (usually the elite), within the general context
of God-made laws that the ruler must execute.
Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, writes that Shura
is important and part of the "the ruling structure" of the Islamic
caliphate, "but not one of its pillars," and may be neglected
without the Caliphate's rule becoming unIslamic. Non-Muslims may
serve in the majlis, though they may not vote or serve as an
official.
England
England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist
and advise the King on important matters. Under the
Anglo-Saxon Kings, there was an advisory
council, the
Witenagemot ("meeting of
wise men"). As part of the
Norman Conquest of England, the
new King,
William I, did away
with the Witenagemot, replacing it with a
Curia Regis ("King's Council"). Membership of
the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants in chief, the few
nobles who "rented" great estates directly from the King, along
with certain senior
ecclesiastics.
Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree
of power to which the throne had to defer no later than the rule of
Edward I. (Kaeuper, Richard W., War Justice and Public Order:
England and France in the Later Middle Ages, Oxford U. Press,
1988.) Like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church
leaders to discuss government matters, especially
finance. A meeting in 1295 became known as the
Model Parliament because it set the
pattern for later
Parliaments. The
significant difference between the Model Parliament and the earlier
Curia Regis was the addition of the Commons, that is, elected
representatives of rural landowners and of townsmen. In 1307,
Edward I agreed not to collect
certain
taxes without consent of the realm. He
also enlarged the court system.
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 origin from which the Parliament, the higher courts of
law, 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 (Christian Humphreys) 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 authorization. The
archbishops,
bishops,
abbots,
earls and
barons were summoned, as were two
knights from each shire and two
burgess 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.
Parliament under Henry VIII and Edward VI
The purpose and structure of parliament in Tudor England underwent
a significant transformation under the reign of Henry VIII.
Originally its methods were primarily medieval and the monarch
still had inarguable dominion over the decisions. According to
Elton, it was Cromwell who then initiated the beginnings of change
within parliament. He said ‘there was created a revised machinery
of government whose principle was bureaucratic organization in the
place of the personal control of the King’s estate.' The power of
the monarch was considerably lessened, instead becoming the rule of
'King-in-Parliament', a balanced fusion of the two bodies in order
to establish a more effective course of reign. This was the basis
of the first ever constitutional monarchy in England, a system
which is still in effect today.
The Reformation Acts gave parliament unlimited power over the
country, and authority over every matter, be it social, economic,
political or even religious; it legalised the Reformation,
officially and indisputably. The King had to rule through the
council, not over it, and there had to be mutual agreement when
creating or passing laws, changing religions or adjusting taxes.
The monarch no longer had sole control over the country. For
instance, during the later years of Mary, the parliament originally
rejected Mary's intent to revise Catholicism, and even later,
denied Elizabeth her request for marriage. If parliament had had
this power before Cromwell, during Wolsey's reign as Secretary, the
reformation may never have happened as the king would have had to
gain the consent of all parliament members before so drastically
changing the country's religious laws. Another change that followed
Cromwell's parliamentary interventions was that under the reign of
Edward VI, parliament was used far more commonly than under Henry
VIII; seven sessions in the six and a half years that Edward
ruled.
The effectiveness of parliament considerably increased after
Cromwell's adjustments. It gave the country an unprecedented
stability when dealing with dynastic complications, such as a minor
king or the lack of a suitable heir. When an acceptable monarch was
not available, the changes in government meant that the country
could still run efficiently through the parliament, without having
to succumb to civil war. Management and organisation was also
improved and parliamentary procedure was documented, statutes
printed. The fact that the monarch was suddenly dependent on
another political body meant that decisions were more thoroughly
considered and the rash whims of Henry VIII were trivialised and
reduced. He could not establish supremacy by proclamation; he
needed the parliament to enforce statute, to add felonies and
treasons. One of the main liberties of parliament was its freedom
of speech; Henry allowed anything to be spoken openly within
parliament and the speakers were not allowed to be arrested, a fact
which they exploited incessantly. Despite this fact however,
parliament held very little objection to the desires of the
monarch, and under Henry and Edward's reign it complied willingly
to the majority of the Kings' decisions.
As Williams described it, 'King and parliament were not separate
entities, but a single body, of which the monarch was the senior
partner and the Lords and the Commons the lesser, but still
essential, members.'
France
Originally, there was only the Parliament 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
Parliament
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 parliament by
establishing the Parliament of Toulouse
, the first
parliament outside of Paris, whose jurisdiction extended
over the most part of southern France
.
From 1443
until the French Revolution
several other parliaments were created in some provinces
of France (Grenoble
, Bordeaux
).
All the
parliaments 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.
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
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 (nobles) 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 nobles (
szlachta) 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,
ding in
Dutch) 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 Russian Federation
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.
Spain
- Main article Cortes
Generales
Although there are documented councils held in 873, 1020, 1050 and
1063, there was no representation of commoners. What is considered
to be the first Spanish Parliament (with the presence of
commoners),
Cortes - was held in
the
Kingdom of Leon in 1118.
Prelates, nobles and commoners met separately in the three estates
of 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 would appear in the other different
territories that would make up Spain: 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 were
united as well in 1258. The Castilian 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' assent was
required to pass new taxes, and could also advise the king on other
matters. The
comunero rebels
intended a stronger role for the Cortes, but were defeated by the
forces of
Habsburg Emperor
Charles V in 1521. The Cortes
maintained some power, however, though it became more of a
consultative entity. However, by the time of
King Philip II, Charles's son, the
Castilian Cortes had come under functionally complete royal
control, with its delegates dependent on the Crown for their
income.
The Cortes of the
Crown of Aragon
kingdoms retained their power to control the king's spending with
regard 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 (as
were those of Aragon
and Valencia
in 1707, Catalonia and Balearic islands
in 1714).
Parliaments 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 Act 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 646 members who are directly
elected by British (or Irish) 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 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 was 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. This changed in
October 2009 when the Supreme
Court of the United Kingdom
opened and acquired the former jurisdiction of the
House of Lords.
Since
1999, there has been a Scottish Parliament
in Edinburgh, which is a national, unicameral legislature for Scotland
.
List of parliaments
Contemporary national parliaments
- List is not exhaustive
- See also: List
of legislatures by country
Parliaments of the European Union
Others
- * 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.
- * The federal government of Canada has a bicameral
parliament, and each of Canada's 10 provinces has a unicameral
parliament.
Contemporary supranational parliaments
Equivalent national legislatures
Defunct
Subnational parliamentary government
Canada
See: Legislative
Assemblies of Canadian provinces and territories
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)
- 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.
Denmark
The Netherlands
Finland
Spain
- See: List of
Spanish regional legislatures
United Kingdom
See also
References
- Gharm Allah Al-Ghamdy
- http://www.tynwald.org.im The Parliament of the Isle of
Man
External links
)
in 930 )
(Tinvaal) Tynwald is the oldest parliament
in the world in continuous existence.
(Storting)
: Wolesi Jirga (elected,
legislative lower house) and Meshrano
Jirga (mainly advisory, indirect representation); in special
cases, e.g. as constituent assembly, a Loya
Jirga
"; 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)
;
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