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The Western European parliamentary model, also known as the West German model (due to the Bundestag of West Germany, now Germany, devised much of this system's basis), is a form of parliamentary system in which greater emphasis is placed upon consent between the wide number of sitting parties in the parliament (most of them elected through a party-list proportional representation electoral method). It is a chief competitor to the Westminster system used in a large number of Commonwealth countries' legislatures. The committees of the Parliaments using the Western European model tend to be more important than the plenary chamber. Switzerland is considered one the purest examples of a consensus system.

[edit] Features

• Constructive vote of no confidence - in which the opposition calls for an opposition replacement for the sitting prime minister when the opposition wants a parliamentary vote on the legislators' level of confidence in the incumbent.
• Parliamentary group - parliamentary groups are more necessary to unify core interests and ideologies of various parties
• Consensus democracy

[edit] References