Parliamentary v Executive power
A short explainer on the proroguing of parliament
by Jennifer Menzies
In Westminster-style parliamentary systems, there is a delicate balance between the power of the Parliament and that of the Executive, which comprises the Prime Minister and Cabinet. To maintain balance, the power to end a session of Parliament sits with the Queen in the United Kingdom, or her representatives, the Governor-General as in Australia. The Queen’s ‘reserve’ powers, known as her personal prerogative are retained to prevent the undermining of the powers of the Parliament by limiting its role in holding the executive to account.
The Queen has the power to either prorogue the Parliament, which is:
- to end a session of Parliament while setting a date for the next session to begin, or,
- to dissolve the Parliament, which ends that Parliamentary session and leads to an election.
There is no written constitution in the United Kingdom, so these matters are managed through convention. Conventions are rules of behaviour that must be mutually observed, in that all sides of politics accept and adhere to them.
When Parliament is dissolved for an election, the power of the Executive is restrained through the caretaker conventions, which come into play because there is no popular chamber to which the Executive government can be accountable.
Prorogation
With prorogation, there is no constraint on the Executive which is why there is concern from the Opposition and academic commentators about the ‘undemocratic’ nature of this move. The prorogation prevents members of Parliament debating a no-deal Brexit.
Such manoeuvres remain controversial. The use of the Governor-General’s reserve powers in 1975 to dismiss the Whitlam government remains Australia’s greatest constitutional crisis. More recently Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued the Parliament in 2008 to avoid being defeated in a no confidence motion and again in 2009 to avoid a Parliamentary inquiry. Once again, the outcry by political analysts and constitutional law experts has been loud and long-lived and the topic is still a live issue in Canadian politics today.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advice to the Queen to prorogue the Parliament will now enter the pantheon of these controversies. The Queen had little choice but to act on the advice of her Prime Minister and it is unlikely that any criticism for the action will be directed to her. But as a new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s ‘bold’ move will now haunt him for the rest of his time at 10 Downing Street.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JENNIFER MENZIES
Jenny is Principal Research Fellow in the Policy Innovation Hub at Griffith University. Jenny has over 25 years experience in policy and public administration in both the State and Commonwealth Governments.
As a senior executive within the Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet she developed the government’s strategic policy agenda including the Smart State Policy.
She was Cabinet Secretary from 2001 to 2004 and the inaugural Secretary for the Council for the Australian Federation from 2007 to 2009 and a member of the Commonwealth Grants Commission 2011 -2016. She publishes in the fields of caretaker conventions, federalism and intergovernmental relations.
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