Characteristics of Parliamentary Form of Government

Parliamentary government practices Dual Executive concept and the principle of the Fusion of Power among the Executive and the Legislature. Malaysia, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Japan are few examples of parliamentary government.

There are four features of parliamentary form of government:

(i)    Practices of Fusion of Power. The members of the Legislature are also the members of the Executive (Cabinet). The electorates elect only their representative in the Legislature. The members of the Legislature then chose an Executive among themselves. The Head Executive will choose his members of Cabinet among the members of the Legislature and then assign them to various government departments and agencies. The Prime Minister and his cabinet members are responsible and answerable to the parliament. As the members of the Legislature, they are responsible for enacting law in the country, and as the members of the Executive, they are responsible for enforcing the law, implementing policy in the government agencies and also providing services to the people.

(ii)  Dual executive system. There are the Head of State and the Head of Government. The Head of State who is usually a monarch: King, Queen, Emperor or Sultan. And the Head of Government usually the Prime Minister and the cabinet members. The Head of State is a nominal executive, his role is nominal and customary as he does not exercises the real power to govern the country and he acts on the advice of the real executive and the cabinet members. While the Head of Government is the real executive who exercises the real power in the government.

(iii)  Dominant Party System. The party who won the majority seats in the parliament during general election forms the ruling government. The voters elect only the member of Legislature to represent them in the parliament. The leader or the head of the winning party chooses his own cabinet members among the Legislature who were elected by the people.

(iv) The chief executive does note elected directly by the people or electorate, the people only vote for legislative representatives, and the legislative members selected the Chief Executive from among themselves or by the appointment of the chief of state.

The flowchart of a Parliamentary System: