In this article you will learn about the Merits and Demerits of Parliamentary Form of Government in Political Science.
Merits of Parliamentary Form of Government
1. Harmony between Legislature and Executive : In a Parliamentary form of Government, the executive always works in close harmony with the legislature. It is mostly in a position to get the necessary laws and finances passed from the legislature.
2. Executive works as a Responsible Executive : Legislature accepts the leadership role of the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers. The Latter accepts the role of the legislature as the custodian of public opinion and finances. It willingly performs the role of a responsible and accountable executive.
3. Flexibility : Parliamentary Government works as a flexible system because a change in the executive can be made without any major difficulty and disturbance.
4. Executive cannot become Despotic : The Parliamentary Executive, because of continuous and alert control of the legislature, cannot behave arbitrarily and become despotic.
5. Public Opinion and Opposition Parties act as good checks on the Government : It continues to work in accordance with the dictates of public opinion and particularly under the critical eye of the opposition.
All these merits make the Parliamentary System a popular form of Government.
Demerits of Parliamentary Form of Government
1. Executive dominates the Legislature : In the absence of democratic ethos and sound party system, the parliamentary executive tends to become dictatorial and inefficient. The cabinet has vast executive and legislature powers. Some political scientists advocate the view that there is a dictatorship of the cabinet in a Parliamentary form of Government.
2. Executive is weak because its tenure is not fixed : The insecurity of tenure can also be a source of limitation, particularly when in the legislature, the executive enjoys a thin majority.
3. Executive can act arbitrarily because of committed support of the majority party : on the other hand, the Parliamentary system can also lead to a domination of the legislature by the executive, particularly when it enjoys a big majority of seats in the legislature.
4. Ministers are not appointed on merit : The system of appointing amateurs and politicians as ministers also involves the risk of giving headships of government departments in the hands incompetent politicians.
5. Party Politics becomes aggressive and dirty : The whole system can get dominated by excessive and unhealthy partisan politics between the majority and opposition parties. The former can try to dominate the latter and the latter can try to hinder the running of administration by the former.
6. Expensive and Inefficient System : Furthermore, besides being an expensive system, it can be a source of instability and inefficiency. In it a large number of incompetent ministers use power.
These defects of the Parliamentary system can be, however, eliminated or at least reduced through both institutional and organisational devices as well as through the inculcation of enlightened awareness of the people and their elected representatives against these evils.
The main reason which compels us to strike a favourable note in favour of Parliamentary form of government is its feature of accountability of the executive and harmony between the legislature and the executive. However, at the same time suitable steps directed towards the preservation of this aspect as well as for the elimination of the chances of unduly big concentration of powers in the hands of the executive, should be taken in every parliamentary form of government.
This article on Merits and Demerits of Parliamentary Form of Government in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.