{"id":245865,"date":"2023-06-01T20:31:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T15:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=245865"},"modified":"2023-06-01T20:31:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T15:01:03","slug":"a-parliamentary-democracy-or-an-executive-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-parliamentary-democracy-or-an-executive-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"A parliamentary democracy or an executive democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cA parliamentary democracy or an executive democracy\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 1st June 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Parliament and state legislatures<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to functioning of Parliament in India<\/p>\n

News-<\/strong> The article explains the issue of executive dominance over legislature in case of Parliamentary democracy in India.<\/p>\n

What are various safeguards in parliamentary democracies against executive dominance or abuse?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To enact its agenda, the executive must command a majority in Parliamen<\/strong>t. This opens the space for intra-party dissent<\/strong>. It provides an opportunity for ruling party parliamentarians other than cabinet members to exercise a check over the executive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Opposition itself is granted certain rights<\/strong> in Parliament, and certain limited control<\/strong> over parliamentary proceedings.<\/p>\n

The interests of Parliament against the executive are meant to be represented by the Speaker. <\/strong>She is a neutral and independent authority. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Certain parliamentary democracies adopt bicameralism<\/strong>. A second \u201cUpper House” <\/strong>acts as a revising chamber<\/strong>. The interests of minorities<\/strong> are represented.<\/p>\n

How various safeguards in parliamentary democracies against executive dominance or abuse have been diluted in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The possibility of intra-party dissent<\/strong> within Parliament has been curtailed by the \u201canti-defection law\u201d.<\/strong> The Tenth Schedule<\/strong> penalises disobedience of the party whip with disqualification from the House. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tenth Schedule has failed to curb horse-trading and unprincipled floor-crossing<\/strong>. It has strengthened the hand of the party leadership. Intra-party dissent<\/strong> is far more difficult when the price is disqualification from Parliament.<\/p>\n

The Indian Constitution did not carve out any specific space for the political Opposition<\/strong> in the House. There is no equivalent of the Prime Minister\u2019s questions<\/strong>, where the Prime Minister must face direct questioning.<\/p>\n

The manner of proceeding<\/strong>s in Parliament are under the complete control of the executive. <\/strong>There are no real constitutional checks <\/strong>upon how that control is exercised.<\/p>\n

Speaker, in our system, is not independent<\/strong>. The Speaker is not required to give up membership of their political party, and not constitutionally obligated<\/strong> to act impartially<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Speakers at central and State levels are acting in a partisan manner<\/strong> to advance the interests of the executive over the interests of the House.<\/p>\n

This has affected the quality of the deliberation<\/strong>s in the lower house as the Speaker has control over the conduct of the House. <\/strong><\/p>\n

When the ruling party wishes to avoid effective scrutiny<\/strong> in the Rajya Sabha over Bills, the Speaker simply classifies the Bill as a \u201cmoney bill\u201d<\/strong>. This was seen in the case of the Aadhaar Act.<\/p>\n

The role of the Upper House is undercut by the ordinance making power.<\/strong> An ordinance is used as a parallel process of law-making, especially when the executive wants to bypass the Upper House.<\/p>\n

How has the constitutional design impacted the working of Parliament?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The only effective check upon the executive is fractured mandate and coalition government<\/strong>. In such a scenario, coalition partners can exercise checks upon the executive<\/strong> in Parliament.<\/p>\n

When there is a single, majority ruling party<\/strong>, Parliament has limited powers. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The quality of parliamentary deliberations<\/strong> has declined. The situation resembles presidential systems<\/strong> with strong executives, but without the checks and balances.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bills are passed with minimal or no deliberation<\/strong>. Parliament sits for fewer days in a year, and parliamentary sessions are often adjourned.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cA parliamentary democracy or an executive democracy\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 1st June 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Parliament and state legislatures Relevance– Issues related to functioning of Parliament in India News- The article explains the issue of executive dominance over legislature in case of Parliamentary democracy in… Continue reading A parliamentary democracy or an executive democracy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-245865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}