The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature. It is used, or was once used, in the national legislatures and subnational legislatures of most Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth nations upon being granted responsible government, beginning with the first of the Canadian provinces in 1848 and the six Australian colonies between 1855 and 1890. However some former colonies (e.g. Nigeria) have adopted the presidential system as their form of government.
There are other parliamentary systems whose procedures differ considerably from the Westminster system.
Read more about Westminster System: Key Characteristics, Operation, Role of The Head of State, Cabinet Government, Bicameral and Unicameral Parliaments, Criticisms, Ceremonies, Current Countries, Former Countries
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“For us necessity is not as of old an image without us, with whom we can do warfare; it is a magic web woven through and through us, like that magnetic system of which modern science speaks, penetrating us with a network subtler than our subtlest nerves, yet bearing in it the central forces of the world.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)