Editing Parliamentary system (section)

==History==
{{Further|History of parliamentarism}}

The first [[parliament]]s date back to Europe in the Middle Ages. The earliest example of a parliament is disputed, especially depending how the term is defined. 

For example, the Icelandic [[Althing]] consisting of prominent individuals among the free landowners of the various districts of the [[Icelandic Commonwealth]] first gathered around the year 930 (it conducted its business orally, with no written record allowing an exact date).

The first written record of a parliament, in particular in the sense of an assembly separate from the population called in presence of a king was 1188 Alfonso IX, King of Leon (Spain) convened the three states in the [[Cortes of León]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-8/the-decreta-of-leon-of-1188-the-oldest-documentary-manifestation-of-the-european-parliamentary-system/|title=The Decreta of León of 1188 – The oldest documentary manifestation of the European parliamentary system|publisher=UNESCO Memory of the World|date=2013|access-date=21 May 2016|archive-date=24 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624133501/http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-8/the-decreta-of-leon-of-1188-the-oldest-documentary-manifestation-of-the-european-parliamentary-system/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>John Keane: ''The Life and Death of Democracy'', London 2009, 169–176.</ref> The [[Catalan Courts|Corts of Catalonia]] were the first parliament of Europe that officially obtained the power to pass legislation, apart from the custom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sánchez |first1=Isabel |title=La Diputació del General de Catalunya (1413-1479) |date=2004 |publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |location=Barcelona |isbn=9788472837508 |page=92}}</ref> An early example of parliamentary government developed in today's Netherlands and Belgium during the [[Dutch revolt]] (1581), when the sovereign, legislative and executive powers were taken over by the [[States General of the Netherlands]] from the monarch, [[King Philip II of Spain]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}} Significant developments [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], in particular in the period 1707 to 1800 and its contemporary, the [[Age of Liberty|Parliamentary System in Sweden between 1721 and 1772]], and later in Europe and elsewhere in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the expansion of like institutions, and beyond

In England, [[Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort]] is remembered as one of the figures relevant later for convening two famous parliaments.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jobson|first1=Adrian|title=The First English Revolution: Simon de Montfort, Henry III and the Barons' War|date=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn= 978-1-84725-226-5 |pages=173–4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gHWamp-TLoC&pg=PA174|access-date=6 June 2020|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801012245/https://books.google.com/books?id=9gHWamp-TLoC&pg=PA174|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Simon de Montfort: The turning point for democracy that gets overlooked |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30849472|access-date=19 January 2015|publisher=BBC|postscript=none|date=19 January 2015|archive-date=19 January 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150119092017/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30849472 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The January Parliament and how it defined Britain|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11355822/The-January-Parliament-and-how-it-defined-Britain.html|access-date=28 January 2015|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 January 2015|archive-date=23 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123010049/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11355822/The-January-Parliament-and-how-it-defined-Britain.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Oxford Parliament (1258)|The first]], in 1258, stripped the king of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included [[Simon de Montfort's Parliament|ordinary citizens from the towns]].<ref name="dnb">{{cite DNB |last=Norgate |first=Kate |author-link=Kate Norgate |wstitle=Montfort, Simon of (1208?-1265)|volume=38 }}</ref> Later, in the 17th century, the [[Parliament of England]] pioneered some of the ideas and systems of [[Liberal democracy#Origins|liberal democracy]] culminating in the [[Glorious Revolution]] and passage of the [[Bill of Rights 1689]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Kopstein|editor1-first=Jeffrey|editor2-last=Lichbach|editor2-first=Mark|editor3-last=Hanson|editor3-first=Stephen E.|title=Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1139991384|pages= 37–9|edition=4, revised|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2jwAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|quote=Britain pioneered the system of liberal democracy that has now spread in one form or another to most of the world's countries|access-date=6 June 2020|archive-date=30 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630231313/https://books.google.com/books?id=L2jwAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="refIIP">{{cite web|title=Constitutionalism: America & Beyond|url=http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html |publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), U.S. Department of State|access-date=30 October 2014|quote=The earliest, and perhaps greatest, victory for liberalism was achieved in England. The rising commercial class that had supported the Tudor monarchy in the 16th century led the revolutionary battle in the 17th, and succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Parliament and, eventually, of the House of Commons. What emerged as the distinctive feature of modern constitutionalism was not the insistence on the idea that the king is subject to law (although this concept is an essential attribute of all constitutionalism). This notion was already well established in the Middle Ages. What was distinctive was the establishment of effective means of political control whereby the rule of law might be enforced. Modern constitutionalism was born with the political requirement that representative government depended upon the consent of citizen subjects... However, as can be seen through provisions in the 1689 Bill of Rights, the English Revolution was fought not just to protect the rights of property (in the narrow sense) but to establish those liberties which liberals believed essential to human dignity and moral worth. The "rights of man" enumerated in the English Bill of Rights gradually were proclaimed beyond the boundaries of England, notably in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024130317/http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html|archive-date=24 October 2014}}</ref>

In the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], the monarch, in theory, chaired the cabinet and chose ministers. In practice, King [[George I of Great Britain|George I]]'s inability to speak English led to the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the leading minister, literally the ''[[Prime minister|prime]]'' or first minister, [[Robert Walpole]]. The gradual democratisation of Parliament with the broadening of the voting franchise increased Parliament's role in controlling government, and in deciding whom the king could ask to form a government. By the 19th century, the [[Great Reform Act 1832]] led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice ''invariably'' deciding who was prime minister and the complexion of the government.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Institution of Prime Minister|url=https://history.blog.gov.uk/2012/01/01/the-institution-of-prime-minister/|publisher=Government of the United Kingdom|website = History of Government Blog|date=1 January 2012|first1= Andrew|last1=  Blick |first2= George|last2= Jones|archive-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310152512/https://history.blog.gov.uk/2012/01/01/the-institution-of-prime-minister/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Carter|first1=Byrum E.|title=Office of the Prime Minister|date=2015|orig-year=1955|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400878260|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ez7WCgAAQBAJ|chapter=The Historical Development of the Office of Prime Minister|access-date=6 June 2020|archive-date=19 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819062756/https://books.google.com/books?id=ez7WCgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other countries gradually adopted what came to be called the [[Westminster Model|Westminster system]] of government,<ref>{{cite web |date=2 December 2013 |title=How the Westminster Parliamentary System was exported around the World |url=http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/how-the-westminster-parliamentary-system-was-exported-around-the-world |access-date=16 December 2013 |publisher=University of Cambridge}}</ref> with an executive answerable to the lower house of a bicameral parliament, and exercising, in the name of the head of state, powers nominally vested in the head of state – hence the use of phrases such as ''Her Majesty's government'' (in constitutional monarchies) or ''His Excellency's government'' (in [[parliamentary republic]]s).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Seidle |first1=F. Leslie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6je60BF-3sC&pg=PA3 |title=Reforming parliamentary democracy |last2=Docherty |first2=David C. |date=2003 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=9780773525085 |page=3}}</ref> Such a system became particularly prevalent in older British dominions, many of which had their constitutions enacted by the British parliament; such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the [[Irish Free State]] and the [[Union of South Africa]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Julian Go |title=Constitutionalism and political reconstruction |date=2007 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004151741 |editor1-last=Arjomand |editor1-first=Saïd Amir |pages=92–94 |chapter=A Globalizing Constitutionalism?, Views from the Postcolony, 1945–2000 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYmmnYKEvE0C&pg=PA94}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Douglas M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA571 |title=The Historical Foundations of World Order |last2=Reisman |first2=W. Michael |date=2008 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |isbn=978-9047423935 |location=Leiden |page=571}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fieldhouse |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nZHdAZDr-kYC&pg=PR21 |title=Settler Self-Government, 1840–1900: The Development of Representative and Responsible Government |last2=Madden |first2=Frederick |date=1990 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-27326-1 |edition=1. publ. |location=New York |page=xxi}}</ref> Some of these parliaments were reformed from, or were initially developed as distinct from their original British model: the [[Australian Senate]], for instance, has since its inception more closely reflected the [[United States Senate|US Senate]] than the British [[House of Lords]]; whereas since 1950 there is no upper house in New Zealand. Many of these countries such as [[Trinidad and Tobago]] and [[Barbados]] have severed institutional ties to Great Britain by becoming republics with their own ceremonial presidents, but retain the Westminster system of government. The idea of parliamentary accountability and [[responsible government]] spread with these systems.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Patapan |first1=Haig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTg0ZTM8X4oC |title=Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific |last2=Wanna |first2=John |last3=Weller |first3=Patrick Moray |date=2005 |publisher=UNSW Press |isbn=978-0-86840-848-4 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Democracy]] and [[parliamentarism|parliamentarianism]] became increasingly prevalent in Europe in the years after [[World War I]], partially imposed by the democratic victors,{{how|date=November 2019}} the United States, Great Britain and France, on the defeated countries and their successors, notably [[Weimar Germany|Germany's Weimar Republic]] and the [[First Austrian Republic]]. Nineteenth-century [[urbanisation]], the [[Industrial Revolution]] and [[modernism]] had already made the parliamentarist demands of the [[Classical radicalism|Radicals]] and the emerging movement of [[Social democracy|social democrats]] increasingly impossible to ignore; these forces came to dominate many states that transitioned to parliamentarism, particularly in the [[French Third Republic]] where the [[Radical Party (France)|Radical Party]] and its centre-left allies dominated the government for several decades. However, the rise of [[Fascism]] in the 1930s put an end to parliamentary democracy in Italy and Germany, among others.

After the [[Second World War]], the defeated [[Axis powers|fascist Axis powers]] were occupied by the victorious [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. In those countries occupied by the Allied democracies (the [[United States]], [[United Kingdom]], and [[France]]) parliamentary constitutions were implemented, resulting in the [[Constitution of Italy|parliamentary constitutions of Italy]] and [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany|West Germany]] (now all of Germany) and the 1947 [[Constitution of Japan]]. The experiences of the war in the occupied nations where the legitimate democratic governments were allowed to return strengthened the public commitment to parliamentary principles; in [[Denmark]], a new constitution was written in 1953, while a long and acrimonious debate in Norway resulted in no changes being made to that country's [[Constitution of Norway|strongly entrenched democratic constitution]].