Over the years, I’ve heard of those events in many countries, even in democratic Western countries. Why did they happen so casually and regularly, although they sound like something that only happens in a chaotic, anarchic dystopia.
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It sounds worse than it is. In the Westminster system of parliament, you having to dissolve the parliament prior to having an election. In sense, the Queen (or Governor General) fires all the members of parliament. Keep in mind, the Queen or the GC does not do so unless the Primer Minister asks (in recent times). In order to replace those members, there needs to be an election. Now, the those who were “fired” can run for election and be re-elected, or new MPs can take their place. The whole procedure is more symbolic than anything else. Now, you may ask how the country can still exist without current members of Parliament? In reality, most of the government is run by the departments, and those remain unchanged. Parliament only meets a few times a year, so this period of dissolved parliament might go unnoticed in terms of actually running the country. Even after the election, the Parliament probably won’t meet for official business until a few weeks afterwards.
So, whenever you hear that parliament was dissolved, it only means that the first step was taken for a upcoming election.
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