parliamentary government

 

a democracy in which the executive and legislative functions are merged into one institution: the parliament.  The parliament is the state's supreme legilature, but it also appoints a committee (the cabinet) to serve as the political executive for the state.  Tends to unify power.

 

cabinet

 

the executive portion of a parliamentary government.  It consists of ministers, most of whom are usually members of the parliament.  Each minister is responsible for the administration of some part of the government's services, such as health or defense. 

coalition

a tactical combination of varied groups, constructed so that the groups will in combination be large enough to command power that they can then share among themselves  Frequently applied to parliamentary government, in which 50% of the votes in parliament are required to from a cabinet but in which it may be necessary to combine two or more parties to amass 50% of the votes

question time

 

 

a device by which cabinet members appear regularly in the parliament to answer questions from members about the administration of their offices

legislative commitees

 

 

small group of legislators whose task is to review carefully a proposed piece of legislation and recommend to the full legislature actions to be taken on it.  They can amend bills, kill bills or investigate future bills.

consensus parliamentarism

 

parliamentary government in which the adversarial relationship between the cabinet and the opposition parties is reduced through a variety of power-sharing devices, such as allotting control of committees to parties proportionally to their strength, whether or not they are part of the cabinet coalition

minority cabinet

 

a cabinet based on a coalition controlling less than majority of votes in the parliament.  Governs through an agreement with one or more other parties, which are not part of the cabinet coation, that they will not vote for motions of no confidence against the cabinet