Changes

This contrasts with presidential systems, where the members of the government (in particular the President) are not members of the legislature.

This contrasts with presidential systems, where the members of the government (in particular the President) are not members of the legislature.

The [[Prime Minister]] is not elected for a fixed term, but serves for as long as he has the "confidence" of Parliament—that is, as long as he enjoys their support.  Usually, the [[Prime Minister]] (and the rest of the government) is removed after an election at which his party failed to retain a majority in parliament.  Occasionally, most often during a period of minority government, the [[Prime Minister]] is removed upon losing a vote of no confidence, or resigns after losing a major vote on an issue they have championed (as [[Italy|Italian]] [[Prime Minister]] [[Romano Prodi]] did in February 2007).  In other cases members of the government party may choose to change their leader in which case the new leader becomes Prime Minister, as happened in to [[Margaret Thatcher]] in [[Britain]] in 1990.

The [[Prime Minister]] is not elected for a fixed term, but serves for as long as he has the "confidence" of Parliament—that is, as long as he enjoys their support.  Usually, the [[Prime Minister]] (and the rest of the government) is removed after an election at which his party failed to retain a majority in parliament.  Occasionally, most often during a period of minority government, the [[Prime Minister]] is removed upon losing a vote of [[no confidence]], or resigns after losing a major vote on an issue they have championed (as [[Italy|Italian]] [[Prime Minister]] [[Romano Prodi]] did in February 2007).  In other cases members of the government party may choose to change their leader in which case the new leader becomes Prime Minister, as happened in to [[Margaret Thatcher]] in [[Britain]] in 1990.

First-past-the-post elections are more likely to produce a parliament with two major parties, making minority government unlikely.  Proportional voting systems allow third parties a chance to win some representation if they can win a small amount of the national vote without winning a majority of any districts. They are more likely to result in a minority or coalition government. In order to make it easier to form a majority government, proportional voting systems often favor large parties for example through thresholds or the way the number of seats are calculated from the votes.

First-past-the-post elections are more likely to produce a parliament with two major parties, making minority government unlikely.  Proportional voting systems allow third parties a chance to win some representation if they can win a small amount of the national vote without winning a majority of any districts. They are more likely to result in a minority or coalition government. In order to make it easier to form a majority government, proportional voting systems often favor large parties for example through thresholds or the way the number of seats are calculated from the votes.