History of Parliamentarism

History Of Parliamentarism

The origins of the modern concept of prime ministerial government go back to the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) and The Parliamentary System in Sweden 1721 - 1772, that coincided with each other.

In theory, power resided in the monarch, who chaired cabinet and chose ministers. In reality, King George I's inability to speak English led the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the leading minister, literally the prime or first minister. The gradual democratisation of parliament with the broadening of the voting franchise increased parliament's role in controlling government, and in deciding who the king could ask to form a government. By the nineteenth century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice invariably deciding who was prime minister and the complexion of the government.

Other countries gradually adopted what came to be called the Westminster Model of government, with an executive answerable to parliament, but exercising powers nominally vested in the head of state, in the name of the head of state. Hence the use of phrases like Her Majesty's government or His Excellency's government. Such a system became particularly prevalent in older British dominions, many of whom had their constitutions enacted by the British parliament. Examples include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Irish Free State and the Union of South Africa, though these parliaments themselves have often evolved or were reformed from their British model: the Australian Senate, for instance, more closely reflects the US Senate than the British House of Lords; whereas there is no upper house in New Zealand.