In this article you will learn about Parliamentary Government in Political Science.
Parliamentary Government
The Parliamentary Government is that form of government which is constituted by those members of the Parliament who are in majority, and in it the executive is responsible and subordinate to the Parliament. It is also known as Responsible Government because in it the executive i.e. the ministers are individually and collectively responsible, for all their acts, before the parliament. Some scholars describe it as the Cabinet System of government because in it the real executive powers are exercised by the Cabinet. Another commonly used name for a Parliamentary form of government has been the Westminster Model of government. Since the origin and growth of such a type of government took place in the British Political System, and in it Westminster has been the home of British Parliament, the name Westminster Model is often used for referring to a parliamentary government.
What is a Parliamentary Government?
Parliamentary Government is the one in which the executive has two parts :
- Nominal Executive, and
- the Real Executive.
The head of the state is the nominal executive and it is not responsible for anything. The Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister is the real executive and for all its acts is collectively responsible before the legislature. There is a very close relationship between the legislature and the executive. The latter is constituted by the leaders of the majority in the legislature and they continue to act as both the legislators and the executive heads (Ministers).
Parliamentary government in India
Parliamentary government is a system of government in which the executive branch is accountable to the legislature, typically through a prime minister. India is a parliamentary democratic republic, meaning that it has a parliamentary system of government and its head of state is a president who is not involved in the day-to-day workings of government.
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in the country and consists of two houses: the Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States). The Lok Sabha is the lower house and is directly elected by the people of India, while the Rajya Sabha is the upper house and is indirectly elected by the members of the State Legislative Assemblies.
Parliamentary Model of Relationship Between the Legislature and Executive
There is a close relationship between the legislature and executive. The latter is constituted out of the former. The members of the executive are also the members of the legislature and they play a dual role - both the legislators in the legislature and as the heads of the government developments i.e. as ministers. In case a person who is not a member of the legislature gets appointed as a minister, he has to get the membership of the legislature within a definite period, failing which he has to resign his ministership.
In this system of legislature-executive relationship, the leader of the majority in the legislature is appointed as the head of the government i.e. Prime Minister and upon his recommendation other ministers are appointed out of the legislators belonging to his party. The Prime Minister and other ministers continue to be members of the legislature even after becoming heads of the executive (government) departments. In fact after becoming ministers their role as legislators become more vigorous than before because they consume more than 90% of the time of the legislature. Thus, close relationship between the legislature and executive is fully upheld by the parliamentary model and it is justified on the ground that it is a source of much needed harmony and cooperation between these two principal organs of the government.
This article on Parliamentary Government in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.