Parliamentary System Quotes
In Dolgoff’s era, his argument was that the political parties were so powerful that it was they who controlled who held public office, not the voters. And the parties were controlled by a few party leaders. However, when the system was reformed in the latter part of the 20th century, the individual incumbent member of Congress in America was so hard to dislodge due to the role of money and the advantage of incumbency, that the class of professional politicians was still very powerful. Reform had reduced the control of political parties but not politicians.
Despite his warning---and that of others—all that they could get agreement upon had each of these three weaknesses. After winning the American Revolution, the new country found the Articles of Confederation and the Continental Congress completely inadequate and finally in 1787 there was a Constitutional Convention held in secret in Philadelphia to overcome the weaknesses of the existing structure of which the warnings of Rush were three of the problems that had to be fixed.
This absolute ruler concluded that single person judgment with advisors has not as sound as a system of open discussion and institutions affecting policy decisions and administration. She herself had made errors and admitted it—see {641730}.
Vladimir Lenin. The Bolshivik Communists were opposed to a strong directly elected parliament. The Mensheviks and almost all others wanted the democratic notion of a parliament. Lenin, a practical politician, counseled to go against their theory and go with what was popular. They did.
At the time there was no concept of serious separation of powers. For all practical purposes, the King ruled and he shared some of his powers with the Parliament. The next centuries in England would see the great battle for governmental power between the monarch and the Parliament. Today, the British monarch has no power but still retains a great deal of influence in England but largely because Queen Elisabeth is so well loved and respected.
In the Canadian, British and some other Parliamentary systems of government, the Prime Minister must appear weekly or periodically in the House of Commons and be subjected to any questions that are asked. He/she cannot claim Executive Privilege or simply not answer questions as in the American Presidential System.
