parliament

par·lia·ment

P0077000 (pär′lə-mənt)n.1. A representative body having supreme legislative powers within a state or multinational organization.2. Parliament The national legislature of the United Kingdom, made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

[Middle English, a meeting about national concerns, from Old French parlement, from parler, to talk; see parley.]

parliament

(ˈpɑːləmənt) n1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) an assembly of the representatives of a political nation or people, often the supreme legislative authority2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) any legislative or deliberative assembly, conference, etc3. (Historical Terms) Also: parlement (in France before the Revolution) any of several high courts of justice in which royal decrees were registered[C13: from Anglo-Latin parliamentum, from Old French parlement, from parler to speak; see parley]

Parliament

(ˈpɑːləmənt) n1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the highest legislative authority in Britain, consisting of the House of Commons, which exercises effective power, the House of Lords, and the sovereign2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a similar legislature in another country3. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the two chambers of a Parliament4. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the lower chamber of a Parliament5. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) any of the assemblies of such a body created by a general election and royal summons and dissolved before the next election

par•lia•ment

(ˈpɑr lə mənt; sometimes ˈpɑrl yə-)

n. 1. (cap.) the national legislature of Great Britain, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. 2. (cap.) the national legislature of certain former British colonies and possessions. 3. (cap.) the national legislature in various other countries. 4. any of several high courts of justice in France before 1789. 5. an assembly on public or national affairs. [1250–1300; Middle English: discourse, consultation, Parliament < Anglo-Latin parliamentum, alter. of Medieval Latin parlāmentum < Old French parlement a speaking, conference <parler to speak; see parley]

Parliament

a legislative body and consultative assembly. Also, cricket parliament at Lords, 1903; Pimlico parliament (i.e., the mob), 1799.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	parliament - a legislative assembly in certain countriesinterpellation - (parliament) a parliamentary procedure of demanding that a government official explain some act or policylaw-makers, legislative assembly, legislative body, legislature, general assembly - persons who make or amend or repeal lawsBritish Parliament - the British legislative bodyKnesset, Knesseth - the Israeli unicameral parliamentOireachtas - the parliament of the Irish RepublicBritain, Great Britain, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; `Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom
	2.	parliament - a card game in which you play your sevens and other cards in sequence in the same suit as the sevens; you win if you are the first to use all your cardssevens, fantancard game, cards - a game played with playing cards

parliament

noun1. assembly, council, congress, senate, convention, legislature, talking shop (informal), convocation The Bangladesh Parliament has approved the policy.2. sitting, diet The legislation will be passed in the next parliament.3. (with cap.) Houses of Parliament, the House, Westminster, Mother of Parliaments, the House of Commons and the House of Lords Questions have been raised in Parliament regarding this issue.Quotations
"A parliament can do any thing but make a man a woman, and a woman a man" [2nd Earl of Pembroke]
"A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people" [Walter Bagehot The English Constitution]
"England is the mother of Parliaments" [John Bright speech at Birmingham]

Translations

国会议会

parliament

(ˈpaːləmənt) noun the highest law-making council of a nation – in Britain, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, considered together. an Act of Parliament. 议会，国会 ˌparliaˈmentary (-ˈmen-) adjective 议会的，国会的

parliament

→ 国会zhCN

Parliament

Parliament,

legislative assembly of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Over the centuries it has become more than a legislative body; it is the sovereign power of Great Britain, whereas the monarch remains sovereign in name only. Parliament consists, technically, of the monarch, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords, but the word in common usage refers to the members of the two houses or, more specifically to Commons alone. The great power of the House of Commons lies, historically, in its control of government finances. The powers of the House of Lords have been negligible since 1911. Parliament is housed in Westminster PalaceWestminster Palace
or Houses of Parliament,
in Westminster, London. The present enormous structure, of Neo-Gothic design, was built (1840–60) by Sir Charles Barry to replace an aggregation of ancient buildings almost completely destroyed by fire in 1834.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Structure

The House of Lords was formerly composed of the hereditary peers of the realm, life peers, Scottish peers, all peeresses in their own right, and 26 Anglican prelates. In 1999 both houses voted to strip most hereditary peers and peeresses of their right to a seat in the House of Lords; 92 of them remained, some by virtue of offices they hold from the monarch or were elected to by the House, the rest (75) as a result of their election to the body by the hereditary peers. The vast majority of the House consists of life peers proposed by the prime minister and created by the monarch; the titles of life peers cannot be inherited. The membership of the body is not fixed. Formerly headed by the lord chancellor, Lords is now presided over by a lord speaker, a post that was created (2006) when the lord chancellor's duties were reorganized.

Commons is a democratically elected body, currently composed of 650 members: 533 from England, 40 from Wales, 59 from Scotland, and 18 from Northern Ireland. The membership is elected from single-member constinuencies that are periodically redrawn and increased or decreased. The speaker, a generally nonpartisan presiding officer, is elected by members of the party in power. The prime minister must, by modern tradition, be a member of Commons; all other ministers of the cabinetcabinet,
group of advisers to the head of the state who themselves are usually the heads of the administrative government departments. The nature of the cabinet differs widely in various countries.
..... Click the link for more information. may be from either house.

Although two parties have tended to predominate, a third party has often been important, yet coalition governments have occurred only rarely. The party or coalition controlling a majority chooses the prime minister—the executive head of government—while the largest minority party not in the government functions in Parliament as "Her Majesty's loyal opposition." When the government party is unable to obtain a parliamentary majority on important issues, it is obliged to call a general election for a new Parliament. Elections must be called every five years at the latest, but the government may call an election earlier, at a time of its choosing.

Unlike in the U.S. system, there is no clear separation of legislative and executive branches of the government; the executive branch is, structurally, a committee of the legislature, but because of party discipline, the cabinet, as leadership of the majority party, controls Parliament, while being answerable to it. The British Parliament has had great influence as a model for legislative bodies in other democratic countries.

History

The Origins of Parliament

There was no historical continuity between the Anglo-Saxon witenagemotwitenagemot
[Old Eng.,=meeting of counselors], a session of the counselors (the witan) of a king in Anglo-Saxon England. Such a body existed in each of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
..... Click the link for more information. and the British Parliament. The first steps in the genesis of the modern parliament occurred in the 13th cent. The long, slow process of evolution began with the Curia Regis, the king's feudal council to which he summoned his tenants in chief, the great barons, and the great prelates. This was the kernel from which Parliament and, more specifically, the House of Lords developed. The Curia Regis, more commonly called the great council, had merely quasilegislative powers and was primarily a judicial and executive body. The development of the heritable right of certain barons (the peerage) to be summoned to the council, originally composed at the king's will, was not at all secure until the mid-14th cent., and even then was far from inviolable.

The House of Commons originated in the 13th cent. in the occasional convocation of representatives of other social classes of the state—knights and burgesses—usually to report the "consent" of the counties and towns to taxes imposed by the king. Its meetings were often held in conjunction with a meeting of the great council, for the early 13th cent. recognized no constitutional difference between the two bodies; the formalization of Parliament as a distinct organ of government took at least another century to complete.

During the Barons' War, Simon de MontfortMontfort, Simon de, earl of Leicester,
1208?–1265, leader of the baronial revolt against Henry III of England. Early Life

He was born in France, the son of Simon de Montfort, leader of the Albigensian Crusade.
..... Click the link for more information. summoned representatives of the counties, towns, and lesser clergy in an attempt to gain support from the middle classes. His famous Parliament of 1265 included two representative burgesses from each borough and four knights from each shire, admitted, at least theoretically, to full standing with the great council. Although Edward I's so-called Model Parliament of 1295 (which contained prelates, magnates, two knights from each county, two burgesses from each town, and representatives of the lower clergy) seemed to formalize a representative principle of composition, great irregularities of membership in fact continued well into the 14th cent.

Nor did the division of Parliament into two houses coalesce until the 14th cent. Before the middle of the century the clerical representatives withdrew to their own convocations, leaving only two estates in Parliament (in contrast to the French States-General). The knights of the shires, who, as a minor landholding aristocracy, might have associated themselves with the great barons in the House of Lords, nevertheless felt their true interest to lie with the burgesses, and with the burgesses developed that corporate sense that marked the House of Commons by the end of the century.

The Growth of Parliamentary Sovereignty

The constitutional position of Parliament was at first undifferentiated from that of the great council. Large assemblies were called only occasionally, to support the king's requests for revenue and other important matters of policy, but not to legislate or "consent to taxation" in the modern sense.

In the 14th cent., Parliament began to gain greater control over grants of revenue to the king. From Parliament's judicial authority (derived, through the Lords, from the judicial powers of the great council) to consider petitions for the redress of grievances and to submit such petitions to the king, developed the practice of withholding financial supplies until the king accepted and acted on the petitions. Statute legislation arose as the petition form was gradually replaced by the drafting of bills sent to the king and ultimately enacted by Commons, Lords, and king together. Impeachment of the king's ministers, another means for securing control over administrative policy, also derived from Parliament's judicial authority and was first used late in the 14th cent.

In the 15th cent., through these devices, Parliament wielded wide administrative and legislative powers. In addition a strong self-consciousness on the part of its members led to claims of parliamentary "privilege," notably freedom from arrest and freedom of debate. With the growth of a stronger monarchy under the Yorkists and especially under the Tudors, Parliament became essentially an instrument of the monarch's will.

The House of Lords with its lord chancellor (now the lord speaker) and the House of Commons with its speaker appeared in their modern form in the 16th cent. The English Reformation greatly increased the powers of Parliament because it was through the nominal agency of Parliament that the Church of England was established. Yet throughout the Tudor period Parliament's legislative supremacy was challenged by the crown's legislative authority through the privy council, a descendant of part of the old feudal council.

With the accession (1603) of the Stuart kings, inept in their dealings with Parliament after the wily Tudors, Parliament was able to exercise its claims, drawing on precedents established but not exploited over the preceding 200 years. In the course of the English civil warEnglish civil war,
1642–48, the conflict between King Charles I of England and a large body of his subjects, generally called the "parliamentarians," that culminated in the defeat and execution of the king and the establishment of a republican commonwealth.
..... Click the link for more information. , Parliament voiced demands not only for collateral power but for actual sovereignty. Although parliamentary authority was reduced to a mere travesty under Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate, the Restoration brought Parliament back into power—secure in its claims to legislative supremacy, to full authority over taxation and expenditures, and to a voice in public policy through partial control (by impeachment) over the king's choice of ministers. Charles II set about learning to manage Parliament, rather than opposing or circumventing it. James II's refusal to do so led to the Glorious RevolutionGlorious Revolution,
in English history, the events of 1688–89 that resulted in the deposition of James II and the accession of William III and Mary II to the English throne. It is also called the Bloodless Revolution.
..... Click the link for more information. of 1688, which permanently affirmed parliamentary sovereignty and forced William III to accept great limitations on the powers of the crown. During the reign of Queen Anne even the royal veto on legislation disappeared.

The Ascendancy of Commons

Despite a general division into Whig and Tory parties toward the end of the 17th cent., political groupings in Parliament were more inclined to form about a particular personality or issue. Although members had considerable freedom to make temporary political alliances without regard to their constituencies, control over members was exercised by the ministry and the crown through patronage, which rested on the purchase of parliamentary seats and tight control over a narrow electorate. As members were paid no salaries, private wealth and liberal patronage were prerequisites to a seat in Commons; as a result, Parliament represented only the propertied upper classes, and private legislation took precedence over public acts throughout the 18th cent.

The parliamentary skills of Sir Robert WalpoleWalpole, Robert, 1st earl of Orford,
1676–1745, English statesman. Early Life and Career

He was the younger son of a prominent Whig family of Norfolk.
..... Click the link for more information. , in many respects the first prime minister, both signified and contributed to the growing importance of Commons. The crown retained the theoretical power to appoint a ministry of its choice, but the resignation (1782) of George III's minister Lord North established, once and for all, a tendency that had developed gradually since the Glorious Revolution—that the prime minister could not function without the support and confidence of the House of Commons.

The complexion of Parliament changed rapidly after 1800. The union (1800) of Ireland and England dissolved the Irish Parliament and added to the British Parliament 100 Irish members, who functioned as an important political bloc throughout the 19th cent. With the appearance of powerful new classes created by the Industrial Revolution and with the currency of democratic doctrines grew demands for extension of suffrage, reform of flagrant abuses of patronage, and reorganization of the entire representative basis of Commons. The first step was achieved by the great Reform Bill of 1832 (see Reform ActsReform Acts
or Reform Bills,
in British history, name given to three major measures that liberalized representation in Parliament in the 19th cent. Representation of the counties and boroughs in the House of Commons had not, except for the effects of parliamentary
..... Click the link for more information. ), followed by the Reform Bills of 1867 and 1884 and the eventual establishment of universal suffrage by the Representation of the People ActsRepresentation of the People Acts,
statutes enacted by the British Parliament to continue the extension of the franchise begun by the Reform Bills (see under Reform Acts).
..... Click the link for more information. in 1948. Parliamentary committees, appointed to investigate social conditions and recommend legislation, played an enlarged role.

The tendency toward consolidation of parties was accelerated as public opinion became a factor in elections free from patronage. Although the Liberals and the Conservatives were known to stand for certain general policies, it was not until near the end of the 19th cent. that William E. Gladstone began the practice of making national campaign tours to pledge the party to a program for the coming Parliament. With the development of the party caucus, at about the same time, freedom of action by individual members was reduced.

By the late 19th cent. members of working-class origin (later organized into the Labour party) were being elected to the House of Commons. Concomitantly, the class represented in the House of Lords began to lose power in British society, and through long conflict with the Commons, particularly on matters of social legislation, the House of Lords itself was weakened. Commons was at first able to intimidate Lords by threatening the creation of enough new peers to override any opposition by the upper house. The contest over the financial bill of 1909 finally led Commons to a more drastic solution. The Parliament Act of 1911 stripped the House of Lords of its veto power on money bills, and on other bills provided that a measure should become law if passed by Commons in two separate sessions, even if vetoed by Lords, if two years had elapsed between sessions. The Parliament Act of 1949 reduced the period to one year. The 1911 act also provided for the payment of salaries to members, thus opening participation to representatives of all classes.

Party discipline became increasingly strong as the 20th cent. progressed, to the extent that a member may be ejected from the parliamentary party if he or she does not vote the party line on specified issues. The result has been to eliminate choice for most MPs on most issues. Long periods of loyal party service in Commons have become nearly required for achieving ministerial status. The rise of socialism in Great Britain after World War II did not greatly affect parliamentary structure, although increased delegation of important functions to the civil service reduced Parliament's immediate control of many governmental activities.

Toward the end of the century Parliament implemented some fundamental changes by moving to redefine the role of the House of Lords and by accepting Scotland's desire to create its own parliament for the governing of domestic affairs; a Welsh assembly was also established. The removal of many hereditary peers from the House of Lords strengthened the remaining members' belief that they had a legitimate constitutional right to challenge those laws passed by the Commons that they regarded as bad law.

Bibliography

See K. R. Mackenzie, The English Parliament (1950, repr. 1963); A. F. Pollard, The Evolution of Parliament (2d ed. 1926, repr. 1964); G. D. Sayles, The King's Parliament of England (1974); D.C. Bank, How Things Get Done (1979); E. Cruikshanks, Parliamentary History (4 vol., 1985); M. S. Ryan, Parliamentary Procedure (1985); G. Jones, Parliamentary Procedure at a Glance (1989).

Parliament

the highest representative institution in bourgeois states. The first parliament was formed in England in the 13th century as a body of class representation. Parliaments did not acquire real importance until after the bourgeois revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The term “parliament” is used to describe the representative bodies in many countries, including Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Belgium, and India. In the USA and the Latin American countries the highest representative body is called Congress; in Sweden, the Riksdag; and in Norway, the Storting. Parliaments may be either unicameral or bicameral. States with a federal form of government have a bicameral parliamentary system (the USA, Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany [FRG], and Australia, for example). Unicameral parliaments and the lower chambers of bicameral parliaments are always formed by direct elections. The upper chamber is formed either by direct elections (the USA, Italy) or indirect (multistage) elections (India, France). Some members of the upper chamber are appointed to their seats or inherit them (Great Britain and Canada). For the preliminary investigation of proposed laws or other questions, parliamentary chambers form committees or commissions, which play an important role in many countries. In the majority of the capitalist countries, the parliamentary body is in session all year, except during holiday recesses. Deputies receive a salary—that is, they are professional representatives. As a rule, bicameral parliaments were established in Western European bourgeois countries as a specific compromise between the bourgeoisie and aristocracy during the period of bourgeois revolutions.

The functions of parliaments include legislation, approval of the state budget, ratification of international agreements, and appointment of bodies for constitutional supervision. In countries where the government is responsible to the parliament, the parliament forms and supervises the government. In some countries (the FRG and Italy) the parliament elects the president of the republic, following a special procedure.

Bourgeois ideologists consider parliament the highest manifestation of popular rule and democracy. In reality, the majority in the parliaments of all bourgeois countries represents the exploiter classes, and the parliament itself is a link in the dictatorial rule of monopoly capital. The bourgeoisie prevents the true representatives of the people from participating in parliament by its control of the right to vote (the basis, either in full or in part, for the formation of parliaments), as well as by its methods of organizing and holding elections. For example, there are no workers in the US Congress. In the British House of Commons elected in 1970, there were a total of 38 workers, and workers constitute only 7 percent of the Bundestag in the FRG. However, even a small working-class representation forces monopolistic circles to curtail the functions of parliament in the bourgeois state, so that many parliamentary bodies are merely formal, and the most important roles in bourgeois governments are played by executive bodies. They direct the parliament’s legislative activity, draw up and implement the budget, and conduct foreign affairs. As a rule, parliaments have no effective apparatus for controlling the swollen bureaucratic machine. Through its political parties, with their parliamentary fractions, monopoly capital directs parliaments to act in its interests.

The real role of a parliament in the political life of a country is determined by the sharpness of class contradictions, which is reflected in the relations among party fractions in parliament; the degree of development of parliamentary institutions; and the strength and influence of working-class organizations.

M. V. BAGLAI

parliament

1. an assembly of the representatives of a political nation or people, often the supreme legislative authority 2. any legislative or deliberative assembly, conference, etc. 3. (in France before the Revolution) any of several high courts of justice in which royal decrees were registered
www.ipu.org/english/parlweb.htm

Parliament

1. the highest legislative authority in Britain, consisting of the House of Commons, which exercises effective power, the House of Lords, and the sovereign 2. a similar legislature in another country 3. the two chambers of a Parliament 4. the lower chamber of a Parliament 5. any of the assemblies of such a body created by a general election and royal summons and dissolved before the next election

parliament

par·lia·ment

parliament

Parliament

par•lia•ment

Parliament

parliament

parliament

parliament

Parliament

Parliament,

Structure

History

The Origins of Parliament

The Growth of Parliamentary Sovereignty

The Ascendancy of Commons

Bibliography

Parliament

parliament

Parliament

Parliament

Parliament

parliament

Synonyms for parliament

noun assembly

Synonyms

noun sitting

Synonyms

noun Houses of Parliament

Synonyms

Synonyms for parliament

noun a legislative assembly in certain countries

Related Words

noun a card game in which you play your sevens and other cards in sequence in the same suit as the sevens

Synonyms

Related Words