Editing Politics of Barbados (section)

===Head of government===
The [[List of Prime Ministers of Barbados|prime minister]] is the [[head of government]]. The prime minister is appointed by the [[president of Barbados]], but to ensure the continuity of a stable government this person will always be the one who has the confidence of the [[Barbados House of Assembly|House of Assembly]] to lead the government. In practice, the position usually goes to the leader of the political party that has the most seats in the [[lower house]]. In no Barbadian election has a single party obtained less than an absolute majority in the House of Assembly (a situation which would have entailed the formation of a [[minority government|minority]] or [[coalition government]]).

The prime minister holds office until he resigns is effectively subject to a winning [[Motion of no confidence|vote of no confidence]]<ref>[http://www.caribbean360.com/News/Caribbean/Stories/2007/12/21/NEWS0000005262.html ''Caribbean 360'' 21 December 2007.]</ref> or is removed by the president; therefore, the party that was in government before the election may attempt to continue to govern if they so desire, even if they hold fewer seats than another party. [[Coalition government]]s have never occurred.

[[Political party|Political parties]] are private organisations that are not mentioned in the constitution. The prime minister and the Cabinet are constitutionally required to be [[Member of Parliament|Members of Parliament]] so they can answer to Parliament for their actions. The prime minister selects ministers to head the various government departments and form a cabinet. The [[Cabinet of Barbados|members of the Cabinet]] remain in office at the pleasure of the President.

If the Assembly passes a [[motion of no confidence]] in the government, the prime minister and the rest of Cabinet are expected either to resign their offices or to ask for [[Dissolution of parliament|Parliament to be dissolved]] so that a [[general election]] can be held. To avoid a non-confidence motion from passing, parties enforce strong [[party discipline]], in which members of a party – especially from the [[ruling party]] – are strongly urged to vote the "[[party line (politics)|party line]]" or face consequences. While a member of a governing party is free to vote their conscience, they are constrained by the fact that voting against the party line (especially in confidence votes) might lead to expulsion from their party. Such an expulsion would lead to loss of election funding and the former party backing an alternate candidate. While the government likes to keep control in these circumstances, in unwritten practice, the only time the government can fall is if a [[money bill]] (financial or budget) is defeated. However, if a government finds that it can not pass any legislation it is common (but not required) that a vote of confidence should be held. The exception is if the prime minister or the government declared that they consider a given bill to be a matter of confidence (hence how [[backbencher]]s are often held to strict party voting). Members can be elected as [[Independent (politician)|independents]].  Most independent members are elected under a party, but either chose to leave the party or are expelled from it.

When there are enough seats for another party to form a government after the resignation of a government, the president may ask the other party to try to form the government.

{{Further|List of Calypso Monarchs of Barbados}}