Multiparty system in the British Parliament and the reform of the Westminster model: An example (or a solution) for our own parliamentary party system in the future?

Abstract

In 2011 the British Parliament approved, within the context of the coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, what can be seen as the most significant constitutional reform that the British government has undertaken in recent decades. This reform, called Fixed-term Parliament Act, 2011, restricts what was one of the main rights of the Prime Minister; dissolving the chamber in order to be able to call early elections. The reform is not motivated by an attempt to overcome the political crisis, similar to other European countries, that the UK is experiencing, but rather by the new demands that seem to derive from the current coalition government. It is certainly a reform that merits analysis by other nations, such as our own, in which fragmented parliaments are growing ever more likely, lacking strong majorities and posing problems that go beyond politics to the heart of the system.