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In parliamentary systems, does the term "the government" have a special technical meaning or something?? I keep reading it over and over again in articles, but nowhere that I find yet is any special meaning defined or mentioned. I'm left to take the word at face value, but this makes much of the writing on parliamentary systems sound like nonsense. For example,
Parliamentary Opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system.
So, what, the minority parties elected officials are opposed to the British government?? How can an elected official be opposed to "the government", if "the government" is taken in the usual sense of the word? To my ears, only terrorists and traitors oppose the government. In fact, that's almost a DEFINITION of a traitor -- one who opposes the government. Or maybe I'm misinterpreting the situation because I'm American and we just have a totally different idea of what "the government" and/or traitor means?? Revolver 07:40, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
By their very presence in the debating chamber, parliamentary oppositions recognize the legitimacy of the system of politics, and thus may share many of the views of the government.
This is another example of a statement which sounds like complete nonsense to American ears. In America, the government doesn't have "views"...I'm not even sure what that means. Individuals or parties have views, but not the government. Am I missing something?? Revolver 07:44, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
As I understand it, the government – when used in the sense of Westminster parliamentary democracies – is the cabinet. After a general election, the leader of the largest party is called upon by the Head of State (the Queen, in the case of the UK) to form the government. This person becomes the Prime Minister, and he selects the ministers that will form his cabinet. Where there is a hung parliament, it may be that the Prime Minister will form an alliance with a smaller party, and in this instance some members of the government (i.e. cabinet) will be selected from that party. An opposition may share the views of the government in that they agree with the form of electoral system that is in use; the mechanisms of raising taxes; and the general operation of the civil service. Thus, while parliament is there to debate and advise, it is the government in the form of the cabinet committee that rules (with the authority of the head of state). Being of more of a scientific bent than someone with any learning in this area, some of the detail is likely to be wrong, but I hope that helps. Noisy | Talk 08:10, May 8, 2005 (UTC)
The difference in meaning must be mentioned IN THE ARTICLE. It's not enough to say, "well, the difference in mentioned in the article government of on the differences in American/British vocabulary. If you don't make some kind of note (e.g. "Here, "government" refers to the party in power, not the general form of government") or something, many readers will be totally confused. Revolver 18:57, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
Why did the person who labeled it put that line there? It's inappropriate.
It's not only Treasury benches being occupied in transition. It can be any of the seats, especially that of the prime minister. - Pika ten10 ( talk) 00:32, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
The article should be moved to Parliamentary opposition. There is no good reason to set it to "Opposition (parliamentary)". 70.20.228.140 ( talk) 23:12, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Parliamentary opposition/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
Loyal opposition is American. Perhaps we can just have a page for loyal opposition in American history with a link to opposition as a world wide subject. That would be much better than to get rid of loyal opposition altogether. Remember, many students (like me) use Wikipedia for history homework. ( 202.151.66.117 ( talk) 05:34, 4 October 2008 (UTC)) |
Last edited at 05:34, 4 October 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 01:55, 30 April 2016 (UTC)