House of Representatives that holds the legislative power of the State, or a region. Is is a central element of any democratic State, and it can receive different nomenclatures (Cortes Generales, House of representatives, Congress, National Assembly), although these designationes also imply different characteristics. It is a body of representative character that represents the will of the State to take political decisions, and whose members were elected by the citizens, who make up the electoral body.
These members may also receive different names (parliamentarians, representatives, congressmen, deputies, etc.), and may have been elected or appointed under different procedures. The political system in which Parliament holds legislative power and controls the Executive Branch, so that its members must formally accountable to him, referred to as “parliamentarism”. To describe the origins of this figure, it is necessary to refer to the cases of different territories.
The British parliamentary government. On the one hand, some sources consider the Irish “Althing”, Europe’s oldest Parliament. This House was established in the 10th century, and was abolished for forty-three years with the Danish occupation of that territory in 1800 (Tello, 2012: 235). Finally, the nationalist movement that regained the independence of the country restored the Althing.
Other sources say the origins of the English Parliament go back, to the late Middle Age, when there were already ample powers of voting. Multiple municipalities and villages then chose their representatives in the county courts, something that was generating a development of a certain culture of representation.
Moreover, during the minority of age of Henry III (first half of the 13th century) was constituted the great Council to govern the Kingdom, which in 1225 convened an Assembly called “magnum concilium” to deal with a crisis. It call eventually became common and sat a paradigm for remaining meetings of the 13th and 14th centuries, which began to be called by the term “parlamentum”, and was called for different purposes, but mainly aimed at getting economic support of the Knights of the counties.
Already in 1295, Edward I was known as the modern Parliament, that is, the first Chamber formed regularly by representatives of some sectors of society: “archbishops, bishops, priors, Abbots, barons, counts, Knights and burghers”) Rodriguez, 2013: 33). These representatives were elected in the different counties by each inhabitant and commoner, “so it was proprietary or not”, but from the 15th century, voting was limited “for the owners of lands or properties amounting to forty schillings a year”(Colomer, 2007: 40).
However, the origins of the parliamentary institution that has reached our days generated a trend in Europe, in such a way that we also need to mention other territories where these parliamentary assemblies were erecting to limit the power of decision to the monarchs. Thus, Carlos Rodríguez mentions: “in England, there were demands related to limiting Royal abuses, but they also took place in the Crown of Aragon, in Germany in 1220, or in Hungary with the Golden Bull of 1222. In addition, in England there was a political debate, but also in Catalonia in 1180, or the Kingdom of León in the Cortes of 1188, regarding the fiscal powers of the Parliament, Alfonso IX of León in 1203 and Jaime I of Aragon in 1236 submitted this topic to the courts. In respect of the arrival of representatives […], it also took place in the Kingdom of Portugal in 1253. Even the name of Parliament […] was found in France before (1220).” (Rodriguez, 2013: 33).
In the 17th century, after opposition to attempts to absolutist monarchs James I, and especially, James II, who was deposed in the glorious revolution of 1688, started a new dynasty with William of Orange. Then, a “limited monarchy ” began to be settled” (Fernández-Miranda and Fernández-Miranda, 2003: 181). This monarchy consolidated the rule of law and the legislative power of Parliament which persists to the present day.
French origins of parliamentarism. In some cities of southern Europe it remained during the Middle Age a certain Roman tradition of autonomy, as in the case of Montpellier and Nimes. In addition, many French provinces also chose provincial and local States since the 15th century, that during the 16th and 17th centuries were expanding their powers, until its role was relegated by the absolutist monarchies for 175 years up to the convocation of the “États Généraux” of 1789. At the beginning of the French Revolution, they were declared National Assembly, and we could locate there the origins of the French parliamentary system as it persists today.
Currently, Parliament is the institution where the legislature is materialized, and it emanates from the national sovereignty recognized by the constitutional texts of the different States. It’s an institution, also endowed with legitimacy, while their representatives are elected, well direct, well indirectly, in exercise of the right to vote (recognized in article 21 of the Universal Declaration of human rights).
It differs from the notion of Assembly on the fact that Assembly is a single unicameral legislative body, while parliaments can adopt bicameral structures -be constituted by two legislative chambers with the same weight, or gathering one of them more broad powers – (Tello, 2012: 235).
Parliamentary democracy as a system of State can adopt different forms of Government. Parliamentarianism as a form of government is an alternative to presidentialism, that is, that system of Government in which the figure of the President or Prime Minister is independent of Parliament. He has his own legitimacy, his power doesn’t emanate from Parliament, and his election results from a direct vote of the citizens (independence of origin: Fernández-Miranda and Fernández-Miranda, 2003). In addition, during his term, he can’t be ceased, for political reasons, by the action of the Parliament (independence of exercise: Fernández-Miranda and Fernández-Miranda, 2003). In a parliamentary system as a form of Government, on the other hand, the center of the main political decisions is this institution.
In addition, in a parliamentary democracy, the electoral system can result in bipartisan or multi-party structures (see also: electoral system). In this way, favors representation and the Government’s two main parties, which are alternating in power by electoral mandate, either favors the presence of different parties in the institutions, in a manner that either or any of them can hold the power according to the will of the electorate and the formation of agreements.
Classic monist parliamentarism is a form of Government whose essence is to guarantee the unity of decision by the close collaboration between institutions, and especially between the head of State – independently if it is a monarchy or a Republic – Government and Parliament. In this way, respecting the principle of separation of powers, but the regular functioning of the institutions favors governance beyond the partisan differences.
The Parliament is an autonomous institution which adopts and develops its own rules of organization and operation, as well as it also regulates the other institutions of the State, with the limitation of the constitutional right of each territory and their rules of organization and operation. This normal functioning of Parliament includes debating and approving laws through the holding of plenary sessions – which is attended by all the parliamentarians elected–and the work of the committees that are also constituted. Members of Parliament are assigned to commissions which are created according to subjects or areas.