passage of laws. Much attention is also given to parliament’s right to supervise
and control public expenditure; indeed, the powers of the original parliaments
stemmed from the right to grant the executive money. Out of this power has
developed the more general parliamentary functions of oversight of the
executive, the role of representing individuals, groups and classes in any
conflicts with the executive, and the use of parliament as a forum in which
issues of the day may be debated. Most versions of parliamentary government
make use of acommitteesystem to consider the details of legislation and of
the budgetary process.
The balance between these functions varies between countries just as the
effectiveness of parliamentary government varies between political systems.
Implicit in the very idea of parliamentary government, however, is the notion
that the executive will not exercise power arbitrarily and will take parliament’s
views into account as being representative of the views of the people (see
accountability). In most systems of parliamentary government the elections
to thelegislaturedetermine the political character of the government, but in
some systems where thevoting systemfrequently produces no clear parlia-
mentary majority there may be scope for discretion on the part of the monarch
orpresidentin forming a government to reflect the composition of the
parliament. Normally governments must maintain theconfidenceof parlia-
ment to stay in power, although how this is interpreted varies from system to
system.
In most parliamentary systems the members of the executive or ministers sit
in parliament, thus making their accountability more direct; in France, how-
ever, a curious hybrid system operates so that, while ministers may run for
parliamentary seats, if they become members of the government they do not sit
within the National Assembly or Senate but are replaced by deputies nomi-
nated to substitute for them in the event of their appointment as a minister or
member of the Constitutional Council, or of their death.
Parliamentary Socialism
The doctrine of parliamentary socialism, that radical reform of capitalist
societies, along socialist lines, could be achieved only by legitimate power
gained through electoral victory is linked with ideas likegradualism, and was
seen by many socialist and Marxist thinkers asrevisionism, as selling out to
the capitalist powers. In the United Kingdom parliamentary socialism, though
effectively always part of theLabour Party’sassumptions, was most effectively
argued by theFabians, and opposed by left-wing elements of the trade unions
and radical groups such as the Independent Labour Party. The radical argument
against parliamentary socialism is, roughly, that taking part in the ordinary
process of electoral politics perverts the socialist drive of activists. Putting too
Parliamentary Socialism