Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Westminster System, Party System, Responsible Government
16 Nov 2011
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Document Summary
Separation of powers - political power is divided between: executive, legislative. Judiciary: day to day governing, law-making, legal branch, liberal democracies have different separations of powers. Parliamentary systems: parliament, talk shop , french = parle , representative chamber, usually based on territorial ridings (constituencies) 1689: glorious revolution : parliament fully takes legislative powers from monarch. Responsible government : beginnings of independent judiciary, executive power taken over by parliament, king/queen becomes increasingly symbolic figures, house of lords begins to be secondary to house of commons. 20th century: the creation of a party system of government based on party discipline, fuses legislative and executive power in the governing. **note*: canada is still a constitutional monarchy, the queen is s till officially our head of state, she still rules the country (in theory) through her agent, the governor- Ex: the governor-general must sign all bills for them to become law. Majority government: party which holds 51%+ seats in the parliament.
