and a theory of social structure to explain power distribution, are common to
most subsequent work in the field.
Parliament
A parliament is in general a consultative assembly whose permission may or
may not constitutionally be required for the formal passage of binding
legislation. The word itself is mainly of English usage, where other languages
are liable to use a version of the word simply meaningassembly. Most
parliaments are nowadays elected assemblies with the duty of checking,
controlling and sometimes electing theexecutivepower. Their structures
can vary, the essential choice being either bicameral or unicameral. A bicameral
parliament (the norm in the Anglo-American world) will often have a separate
basis for selection for the two ‘houses’ or chambers of parliament, and will
usually have somewhat different powers for the two. A very common differ-
ence, for example, is the sole right of the ‘lower’ house to initiate bills that
result in taxation. The selection procedure for the lower house (in the United
Kingdom the House of Commons, in the USA the House of Representatives,
in Germany the Bundestag) is usually the more clearly democratic. Thus the
upper house in the UK, beginning a process of reform at the start of the 21st
century, is the House of Lords, entirely unelected. The US Senate is elected on
a basis of equal representation for each state, rather than of equally populated
electoral districts, and Canadian senators are appointed by the governor-
general on the recommendation of the prime minister (seesecond cham-
bers).
Historically in Europe the development of democracy over the centuries has
been largely the growth of power of parliament over themonarchy, and of the
lower house over the upper. One can still see similar processes at work in other
institutional contexts, an obvious one being the striving for power of the
European Parliament over other institutions of theEuropean Union. When
the Eastern European countries started the process ofdemocratic transition
after the collapse of communism, they all opted for powerful parliaments rather
than strong presidencies.
Parliamentary Government
Parliamentary government is a system of government in which theexecutive
is responsible to anassemblyorparliamentwhich may be constituted by
election—as has increasingly been the case in the 20th century—or by
nomination by some wider body. These parliaments perform many functions,
but in most their primary purpose is to legislate both in the sense of
scrutinizing the detail of laws and in that of authorizing or legitimizing the
Parliament