Parliamentary Systems and Governance Concepts

Concepts

• Formateur: A key figure in parliamentary systems, responsible for putting together a government coalition.
• Cabinet: The group of ministers in a government.
• Government (in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Systems): The executive branch, formed and functioning differently in these systems.
• Portfolio: The area of responsibility assigned to a minister in government.
• Vote of no confidence: Mechanism to remove a government in parliamentary systems.
• Caretaker government: Interim leadership during a transition period. Often between governments.
• Hung Parliament: A parliament where no single party holds a majority, and forming a government is difficult.
• Coalition (and types of coalitions): Agreements between different political groups to form a governing body. Includes specific types.
• Coalitional Presidentialism: A system where coalitions are integral to presidential governance.
• Minimum Winning Coalition: Coalition with the smallest number of parties needed to hold power.
• Unicameralism vs. Bicameralism: Systems with one or two legislative houses, and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
• "One-person, one vote": The principle of equal representation in elections.
• Presidential systems: Systems with a president who is both head of state and head of government.
• Parliamentary systems: Systems where the executive branch is responsible to the legislative body.
• Semi-Presidential/Mixed systems: Hybrid systems blending presidential and parliamentary features.
• Electoral System: Rules for translating votes into seats in a legislative assembly.
• Electoral formula: Specific math and methodology used to determine seat allocation.
• District magnitude: The number of seats in a district and how this determines electoral strategy.
• Plurality: A voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins.
• Majoritarian systems: Voting systems designed to produce a decisive majority of votes for one candidate.
• Alternative Vote: A voting system where voters rank candidates.
• Two-round system for presidential elections: Two elections to determine a winner.
• Proportional Representation systems: A process where the percentage of votes received directly translates into the percentage of seats held.
• Mixed systems (when referring to electoral systems): Combining different types of systems.
• Veto Actors: Individuals or groups with the ability to block government actions.
• Divisors (D’hondt, Sainte Lague, Modified Sainte Lague): Different methods used for calculating seat distributions in proportional representation systems.
• Quotas (for allocating seats): Guidelines for distributing seats.
• Thresholds (for allocating seats): Minimum vote requirements for parties to enter the legislature.
• Types of electoral lists: Different structures of lists presented by parties for elections.
• Head of State: The person officially representing the country.
• Head of Government: The person leading the government.
• Duverger's law & strategic/ tactical voting vs. sincere voting: A principle linking electoral systems and political party structures. Strategic involves vote choice to achieve desired results. Sincere represents honest voting preferences.
• Internally-generated parties: Parties formed organically within a particular society.
• Externally generated parties: Parties created from outside influences.
• Mass parties: Large-scale political organizations focusing on broad appeal.
• Catch-all parties: Broader parties aiming for vast appeal.
• Post-materialist parties: Parties prioritizing factors beyond basic material needs.
• Cleavages: Social divisions that influence political alignments.
• Extreme Right parties: Parties with extreme stances on political ideologies.
• Median-Voter Theorem: The tendency of political candidates to moderate their stances to appeal to the political center.

Issues

• Identifying and categorizing political parties ideologically (left and right).
• Coalition government formation strategies.
• Different vote-counting methods to assign election seats.

Test your knowledge on key concepts related to parliamentary systems, including the roles of ministers, types of coalitions, and mechanisms like the vote of no confidence. This quiz covers essential terms such as caretaker government and hung parliament that shape how governments function. Enhance your understanding of political structures in this engaging quiz.