How does a Parliament work? My impression of it is that it is chaotic and unproductive in solving country’s issues. Every single issue is brought up and before one member finishes speaking, a few others would jump in and interrupt. Why is this system used? Is the a better alternative?
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The best way to describe a Parliamentary System is to contrast it with a Presidential System. I’ll use what I consider the archetypal Parliamentary and Presidential Systems (at the very least within the English-speaking world): the UK and the US.
In the US, the Electoral College elects an individual to the Office of President, the chief executive officer of the Federal government and head of the executive branch. At the same time, we also directly elect members to Congress, the legislature of the United States. The Office of the President is separate from, albeit not insulated from, Congress. The President’s powers stem largely from statutes empowering the executive branch to take regulatory or law enforcement actions, which the President then has some level of discretion over as prescribed by law. The President serves for 4 years unless indicted (“impeached”) by the House of Representatives and convicted of criminal conduct or abuse of power and trust by the Senate; however, conviction is a high bar that has never been met. Both the legislative and executive branches are separate, but dependent, on each other. Congress may act against the wishes of the President and vice versa. Save for removal from office via impeachment
In the UK, there is no President. Instead, there is the Monarch, who effectively does not exercise power, and the Prime Minister. Unlike the US, where the President is elected the Prime Minister is not, at least not independent of Parliament. Instead, the Monarch appoints to the position of Prime Minister someone who can command the confidence of Parliament; by convention, this is a member of Parliament, typically the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons which can garner majority support in the chamber. Whereas the President has a fixed term in office, the Prime Minister does not, instead serving only so long as they have the confidence of Parliament. If, in a “motion of no confidence”, a majority of Parliament votes against the government, then the government must either resign, presenting the possib, or a general election must be called, which gives the government a chance to win the confidence of the new Parliament.
Every government is different, with some systems having both a President and Prime Minister. However, the US and UK illustrate the general distinction between a Presidential and Parliamentary System: a Parliamentary System establishes the executive branch as dependent upon and subsidiary to the legislative branch, whereas a Presidential system creates a more independent executive. While the legislative branch may still hold some level of power over the executive branch (for example, the President require Senate approval for picking cabinet members in the executive branch and can be removed in extraordinary circumstances, as stated above), the executive generally operates on its own electoral mandate. In a Parliamentary, the Prime Minister and executive branch effectively serves at the pleasure of the Parliament.
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