Cabinet as the leading Part of Parliament. Some Aspects of the hesitating Constitutional Reception of the Westminster Model in European Countries

Parliamentary Government is the most widespread category of political regime in the free World at the present time. Even if it may offer different nuances, this government system has a coherent Logic, which was pragmaticlly founded in Great Britain. In this sense, all parliamentary systems are epigones of Westminster ; for all can be said that the Cabinet is in the constitutional reality the leading Part of Parliament. Despite of this fact, it is remarkable that the written constitutional Law which pretend to have institutionalized the Principle of parliamentary government rarely adopted the technical implications of the british Model as Walter Bagehot have characterized it. The “elective function” (that means the Power to elect the Cabinet or at least the Prime Minister) of Parliament is rarely established as a formal Procedure ; the Definition of Parliament is not recognized as like as in Great Britain ; the Role of the cabinet members in Parliament is not recognized in the same way as in the Westminster Model. This Confrontation between the written Law and the Principles of Parliamentary Government shows the gulfwhich separate the mental representations and the formulas of written Law. This gap is based on misunderstandings about parliamentary government and it contributes to reinforce them.