Parliamentary Republic

A parliamentary republic, unlike a direct democracy or constitutional republic, is a system of representative government in which the people elect their representatives in a national legislature, and the legislature then chooses its own executive from the dominant political party.

Generally, political parties in parliamentary republics are very popular. The government may have a constitution, but generally, parliamentary republics pattern themselves on the Westminster model under which the government is bound by Common Law, rather than an enumerated legal document.

England is a parliamentary republic: citizens vote for their "members of Parliament," and the political party with the largest percentage hold of Parliament then selects its leader to be Prime Minister. For the past decade, the Labor Party has been the dominant party in England, and the Party has selected Tony Blair, then Gordon Brown, as Prime Minister.

References

• Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy