Origins[edit]

The Sicilian Parliament is considered one of the oldest in the world[2][3] (together with
that Icelandic[4] and Faroese,[5] which, however, had no decision-making powers, a fact which
makes the Sicilian Parliament the first in the modern sense). In 1097 came the first conference
in Mazara del Vallo convened by Roger I the Great Count of a parliament initially travelling. The
Sicilian Parliament was made up of three branches: from feudalism, from the Ecclesiastical and
from the State Property. The first Norman parliament was not a deliberative, and had only an
advisory function and confirmation of the sovereign, especially in taxation, economics and wars.
Members were chosen from the more powerful nobles. The use of the term 'parliament' to
designate such a body first occurred amongst the French-speaking nobility in England in 1236.
The word parliament comes from the French parler, which means to talk or to discuss.

Parliament government[edit]

Nations with bicameral legislatures.

Nations with unicameral legislatures.
No legislature.

Legislatures called parliaments operate under a parliamentary system of government in which

the executive is constitutionally answerable to the parliament. Parliaments usually consist
of chambers or houses, and are usually either bicameral orunicameral although more complex
models exist, or have existed (seeTricameralism).
A nation's prime minister (PM) is almost always the leader of the majority party in the lower
house of parliament, but only holds his or her office as long as the "confidence of the house" is
maintained. If members of the lower house lose faith in the leader for whatever reason, they can
call a vote of no confidence and force the PM to resign.
This can be particularly dangerous to a government when the distribution of seats among
different parties is relatively even, in which case a new election is often called shortly thereafter.
However, in case of general discontent with the head of government, his replacement can be
made very smoothly without all the complications that it represents in the case of a presidential
system.
The parliamentary system can be contrasted with a presidential system, on the model of the
United States' congressional system, which operate under a stricter separation of
powers whereby the executive does not form part of, nor is appointed by, the parliamentary or

legislative body. In such a system, congresses do not select or dismiss heads of governments,
and governments cannot request an early dissolution as may be the case for parliaments. Some
states have a semi-presidential system which falls between parliamentary and congressional
systems combines a powerful head of state (president) with a head of government (PM)
responsible to parliament.