Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Westminster Political System

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The Westminster political system in essence is a system of rules and procedures that dictate the way through which legislatures grant the executive branch its legitimacy. This political system have been subsequently exported from the UK to multiple Commonwealth countries, In which its primary advantage lies in the system’s ability to integrate effective governance with accountability. One important aspect of the parliamentary political system is the separation between the head of the government and the head of the state, in which in the UK the monarch has only ceremonial powers, while the formal head of the government serves as a member of legislature. parliamentarianism is favored by both politicians and academics. This is due to the …show more content…

This type of collegial executive has both advantages and disadvantages. The benefits lie in its collective responsibility, in which the entire executive branch is accountable for all decisions to the legislature. Such structure promotes unity and encourages mandates discussion about important issues within the executive. Beside, unanimity for all decisions is required within the executive therefore, the cabinet’s support is necessarily for the prime minister to govern effectively while prohibiting him from extending his individual powers. Additional benefit of collegial executive is the diverse viewpoints it offers, in which each cabinet member heads a different committee and mentions the committee’s decisions in the cabinet meetings. This guarantee that before the executive makes a decision all key issues have been thoroughly discussed. And it prevent executive from acting merely according to the prime minister’s interests. On the other hand, shared executive can impede the decision-making process when unanimity cannot be attained. A minister may refuse to compromise his own beliefs for the advantage of undivided decision, and since his political reputation is on line, he may decide on individual act rather than collective. Also, even though cabinet members have to be on an equal level,