Parliamentary System of India

• Democratic Governments are classified into two types based on the executive and legislative organ of the Government –

A. Parliamentary Government

• • • The parliamentary system of government is the one in which the executive is responsible to the legislature for its policies and acts.
    • The parliamentary government is also known as cabinet government or responsible government or Westminster model of government and is present in Britain, Japan, Canada, India etc.
    • It is also called as the Cabinet government due to concentration of executive powers in the cabinet.

B. Presidential Government

• • • The presidential system of government is one in which the executive is not responsible to the legislature for its policies and acts, and is constitutionally independent of the legislature in respect of its term of office.
    • The presidential government is also known as non-responsible or non-parliamentary or fixed executive system of government and is found in USA, Brazil, Russia, Sri Lanka etc.

Parliamentary System in India

• • The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary form of government, both at the Centre and in the states.
  • Articles 74 and 75 deal with the parliamentary system at the Centre and Articles 163 and 164 in the states.

Features of Parliamentary Government

1. Nominal and Real Executives

• • The President is the nominal executive (de jure executive) while the Prime Minister is the real executive (de facto executive).
  • The President is head of the State while Prime Minister is head of the government.
  • According to Article 74, the Prime Minister heads the council of ministers which would aid and advise the President in the exercise of his functions.

2. Majority Party Rule

• • The party which secures majority of Lok Sabha seats forms the Government.
  • Leader of the Majority party is appointed as Prime Minister by the President and other ministers are appointed by the advice of the Prime Minister.
  • The President may invite a coalition of parties to form the government, in case, no party has got majority.

3. Leadership of the Prime Minister

• • The Prime Minister plays the leadership role in this system of government.
  • In India, the Prime Minister is the real executive as he is the head of the government, the council of ministers and the ruling government.
  • Thus, he has to play a significant and important role in the working of the government.

4. Collective Responsibility

• • Article 75 states that Ministers are collectively responsible to the Parliament in General and to Lok Sabha in Particular.
  • The lower house of parliament has an ability to dismiss a government by getting the no confidence motion passed in the house.
  • In India, the government survives till the time it enjoys support of the majority of members in the Lok Sabha.

5. Political Homogeneity

• • Members of the councils of ministers usually belongs to same political party and shares the same ideology or thoughts.
  • In case of Coalition Government, the various members of political Parties should reach a minimum consensus to operate a government.

6. Double Membership

• • The ministers are members of both the legislature and the executive.
  • The Constitution specifies that a minister who is not a member of the Parliament for a period of 6 consecutive months ceases to be a minister.

7. Dissolution of the Lower House

• • The prime minister can advise the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha before the expiry of its term and hold fresh elections.
  • This means that the executive enjoys the right to get the legislature dissolve in a parliamentary system.

8. Independent Civil Service

• • The civil servants advice and implement decisions of the government.
  • Civil servants hold permanent appointments based on merit-based selection process.
  • They ensure continuity of employment even when the government changes and also ensures efficiency in execution of duties and responsibilities.

9. Bicameral Legislature 

• • Most of the countries following parliamentary system, including India, have bicameral legislature i.e. Lower House (Lok Sabha) and Upper House (Rajya Sabha).
  • The members of the Lower House are elected by the people. The Lower House can be dissolved, in case, the term of the government is over or there is no scope of government formation due to lack of majority in house.
  • The members of Upper House are elected by in direct elections. The Upper House cannot be dissolved.

10. Secrecy

• • The members of the executive have to follow the principle of secrecy of procedure and cannot divulge information about their proceedings, policies and decisions.
  • In India, the ministers take oath of secrecy before entering their office which is administered by the President.

Advantages of the Parliamentary System

1. Coordination Between Legislature and Executive

• • The executive is a part of the legislature and both are independent at work.
  • As the government enjoys the support of majority of members in the lower house, the scope of disputes and conflicts decreases.
  • Hence, it makes easy for the government to pass the legislation in the parliament and implement them.

2. Responsible Government

• • The Prime Minister and Its Cabinet is directly responsible to the Parliament for all their acts.
  • The Parliament exercises control over the ministers through various devices like question hour, discussions, adjournment motion, no confidence motion, etc.

3. Prevents Despotism (Autocracy)

• • The executive powers are vested on group of Individuals or a cabinet and not to a single person.
  • The government is responsible to parliament and can be remove through no-confidence motion.

4. Standing by Alternative Government

• • If the ruling party loses the majority, the head of the state can invite the opposition to form the government.
  • Dr Jennings says, ‘the leader of the opposition is the alternative prime minister’.

5. Wide Representation

• • Since the executive consists of Group of Individuals, hence, it is possible to provide representation to all sections and regions of the state in the government.
  • The parliamentary form of government provides opportunity to various ethnically, racially, linguistically and ideologically diverse groups to share their views in framing of laws and policymaking.

Disadvantages of the Parliamentary System

1. Unstable Government

• • It does not provide stable government as there is no guarantee that a government will survive its tenure.
  • A no-confidence motion or political defection or evils of multiparty coalition can make the government unstable.

2. Non Stability of Policies

• • Parliamentary system is not suitable for long term policies implementation due to the uncertainty of the government.
  • Change in ruling party is followed by the changes in the policies.

3. Dictatorship of the Cabinet

• • When the ruling party have absolute majority, the Cabinet becomes autocratic and exercise nearly unlimited powers.

4. Against Separation of Powers

• • The Parliamentary system consists of legislative as well as executive powers which are inseparable.
  • The Cabinet of the government act as the leader of executive as well as legislative powers.
  • Hence, the System goes against the basics of separation of powers.

5. Government by Amateurs

• • The parliamentary system is not favourable to administrative efficiency as the ministers are not experts in their fields. The ministers devote most of their time to parliamentary work, cabinet meetings and party activities.
  • The Prime Minister has a limited choice in the selection of ministers; his choice is restricted to the members of Parliament alone and does not extend to external talent.

Reasons for Adopting Parliamentary System in India

The Constituent Assembly preferred the British Parliamentary system in India due to following reasons –

1. Familiarity with the System

• • Constitution-makers were familiar with the parliamentary system since it had been setup in India during the British rule.

2. Preference to More Responsibility

• • According to Dr. B R Ambedkar – ‘A democratic executive must satisfy two Condition i.e. Stability and responsibility. The Draft Constitution in recommending the parliamentary system of Executive has preferred more responsibility to more stability.’
  • Hence, the Parliamentary system of India is a balanced combination of stability and responsibility.

3. Need to Avoid Legislative—Executive Conflicts

• • The Constitution framers wanted to avoid the conflicts between the executives and the legislature as India could not afford the conflict between two organs of the government at the early stages.
  • They wanted a form of government that would be conductive to the manifold development of the country.

4. Indian Society

• • India is one of the most diverse States in the world. Hence, the Constitution-makers adopted the parliamentary system as it offers greater scope for giving representation to various section, interests and regions in the government.
  • This promotes a national spirit among the people and builds a united India.

Distinction between Indian and British Parliamentary Models

The parliamentary system of India is largely based on the British parliamentary system. However, it never became a replica of the British system and differs in the following respects:

 So, this was all about the Parliamentary System in India and its Advantage, disadvantage, Features and Significance.

In the Next Post (Click Here), we will discuss the Federal System and its importance.