PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is

a system of democratic government where the head of government (who may also be the head of
state) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support
("confidence") of the legislature, typically a parliament, to which they are accountable.
In a parliamentary system, the head of state and head of government are usually two separate
positions, with the head of state serving as a ceremonial figurehead with little if any power, while
all of the real political power is vested in the head of government. This is in contrast to a
presidential system, which features a president who is usually both the head of state and the head
of government and, most importantly, does not derive their legitimacy from the legislature.
Countries with parliamentary systems may be constitutional monarchies, where a monarch is the
head of state while the head of government is almost always a member of parliament,
or parliamentary republics, where a mostly ceremonial president is the head of state while the
head of government is regularly from the legislature. In a few parliamentary republics,
among some others, the head of government is also head of state, but is elected by and is
answerable to parliament. In bicameral parliaments, the head of government is generally, though
not always, a member of the lower house.
Parliamentarianism is the dominant form of government in Europe, with 32 of its 50 sovereign
states being parliamentarian. It is also common across the Caribbean, being the form of
government of 10 of its 13 island states, and in Oceania. Elsewhere in the world, parliamentary
governments are less common, but they are distributed through all continents, most often in
former colonies of the British Empire that subscribe to a particular brand of parliamentarianism
known as the Westminster system.
History[edit]
Further information: History of parliamentarism
Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose
decisions were assessed by village elders. Eventually, these councils slowly evolved into the
modern parliamentary system.
The first parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages: specifically in 1188 Alfonso IX, King
of Leon (Spain) convened the three states in the Cortes of León.[1][2] The Corts of Catalonia were
the first parliament of Europe that officially obtained the power to pass legislation, apart from the
custom.[3] An early example of parliamentary government developed in today's Netherlands and
Belgium during the Dutch revolt (1581), when the sovereign, legislative and executive powers
were taken over by the States General of the Netherlands from the monarch, King Philip II of
Spain.[citation needed] The modern concept of parliamentary government emerged in the Kingdom of
Great Britain between 1707 and 1800 and its contemporary, the Parliamentary System in Sweden
between 1721 and 1772.
In England, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the fathers of representative
government for convening two famous parliaments.[4][5][6] The first, in 1258, stripped the king of
unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns.[7] Later, in
the 17th century, the Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of liberal
democracy culminating in the Glorious Revolution and passage of the Bill of Rights 1689.[8][9]
In the Kingdom of Great Britain, the monarch, in theory, chaired the cabinet and chose ministers.
In practice, King George I's inability to speak English led to the responsibility for chairing cabinet
to go to the leading minister, literally the prime or first minister, Robert Walpole. The gradual
democratisation of parliament with the broadening of the voting franchise increased parliament's
role in controlling government, and in deciding whom the king could ask to form a government.
By the 19th century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its
choice invariably deciding who was prime minister and the complexion of the government.[10][11]
Other countries gradually adopted what came to be called the Westminster system of government,
[12]
with an executive answerable to the lower house of a bicameral parliament, and exercising, in
 PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

the name of the head of state, powers nominally vested in the head of state – hence the use of
phrases such as Her Majesty's government (in constitutional monarchies) or His Excellency's
government (in parliamentary republics).[13] Such a system became particularly prevalent in older
British dominions, many of which had their constitutions enacted by the British parliament; such
as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Irish Free State and the Union of South Africa.[14][15][16] Some
of these parliaments were reformed from, or were initially developed as distinct from their original
British model: the Australian Senate, for instance, has since its inception more closely reflected
the US Senate than the British House of Lords; whereas since 1950 there is no upper house in
New Zealand. Many of these countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados have severed
institutional ties to Great Britain by becoming republics with their own ceremonial Presidents, but
retain the Westminster system of government. The idea of parliamentary accountability
and responsible government spread with these systems.[17]
Democracy and parliamentarianism became increasingly prevalent in Europe in the years
after World War I, partially imposed by the democratic victors,[how?] the United States, Great Britain
and France, on the defeated countries and their successors, notably Germany's Weimar
Republic and the First Austrian Republic. Nineteenth-century urbanisation, the Industrial
Revolution and modernism had already made the parliamentarist demands of the Radicals and the
emerging movement of social democrats increasingly impossible to ignore; these forces came to
dominate many states that transitioned to parliamentarism, particularly in the French Third
Republic where the Radical Party and its centre-left allies dominated the government for several
decades. However, the rise of Fascism in the 1930s put an end to parliamentary democracy in Italy
and Germany, among others.

The Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh was established on 10 April 1972 after the Bangladesh
Liberation War to prepare a democratic constitution and served as its first parliament as an
independent nation. The assembly approved the constitution on 4 November 1972, and it took effect
on 16 December[3] and the Constituent Assembly became the Provisional Parliament of Bangladesh
until the first elections under the new constitution took place in 1973.
Until 10 July 1981 the Constituent Assembly, and the first and second parliaments held their sittings
in the building that now houses the Prime Minister's Office and which is often referred as the old
Sangsad Bhaban (old Parliament House). The opening ceremony of the present Parliament House
was performed on 15 February 1982. The last session of the second parliament was held in the new
house on 15 February 1982.[4]
new constitution took place in 1973.
Until 10 July 1981 the Constituent Assembly, and the first and second parliaments held their sittings
in the building that now houses the Prime Minister's Office and which is often referred as the old
Sangsad Bhaban (old Parliament House). The opening ceremony of the present Parliament House
was performed on 15 February 1982. The last session of the second parliament was held in the new
house on 15 February 1982.[4]