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A parliament is a legislative body, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system derived from that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement , the action of parler (to speak) : a parlement is a talk, a discussion, hence a meeting (an assembly, a court) where people discuss matters. While all parliaments are legislatures, not all legislatures are parliaments.

The British Parliament is traditionally referred to as the "Mother of Parliaments", as it has been the model for most other parliamentary systems and its Acts have created many other parliaments. The first English Parliament was formed during the reign of King Henry III in the 13th century. In the United Kingdom, Parliament consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarch. The House of Commons is composed of over 600 members who are directly elected by British citizens to represent various cities, communities, and other electoral districts. The party that can win the most seats in the House of Commons forms the government, and the party leader becomes the Prime Minister and head of governmentThe head of government is the leader of the government or cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is known as a premier or prime minister. In presidential systems, the head of government may be the same person as the head of state which. Legislation originates from and is voted on by members of the House of Commons. If passed, it goes to the House of Lords. The House of Lords is a body of long-serving, un-elected members, 92 of whom inherit their seats, 574 of whom have been appointed to lifetime seats by the current or preceding governments. The Lords must vote to approve all legislation from the House before it can go before the monarch and receive the formal ratification to become a lawThis article is about law in society. For other possible meanings, see law (disambiguation). Law (a loanword from Danish-Norwegian lov , in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules of conduct which mandate or proscribe (or both) specified relationshi, however under certain circumstances the House of Commons may overrule it using the Parliament ActIn the United Kingdom, Parliament Act refers to each of two Acts of Parliament, passed in 1911 and 1949 respectively. The first Act, the Parliament Act 1911, cut the powers of the House of Lords to interfere with and retard House of Commons legislation, as. In addition, specific members of the House of Lords act as the ultimate court of appeal in the United Kingdom.

In a similar fashion, most other nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British, "three-tier" model. Most countries in Europe and the CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of independent sovereign states, mostly formed by the United Kingdom and its former colonies. It was formerly known as the British Commonwealth (or British Commonwealth of Nations , and many still cal have similarly organized parliaments with a largely ceremonial Head of State who formally opens and closes parliament, a large elected lower house (usually called the "House of Represenatives") and a smaller, upper house. The lower house is almost always the originator of legislation, and the upper house is the body that offers the "second look" and decides whether to vetoThe word veto comes from Latin and literally means I forbid''. It is used to denote that a certain party has the right to unilaterally stop a certain piece of legislation. A veto thus gives unlimited power to stop changes, but not to adopt them. The veto or approve the bills. This style of two houses is called bicameralIn government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a parliament or legislature which consists of two Chambers or Houses. Theory Although the ideas on wh; also parliaments with only one house exist (see unicameralismUnicameralism is the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Many countries with unicameral legislatures are unitary states and consider an upper house or second chamber unnecessary. In many instances these states had a second ch).

A parliament's lower house is usually composed of at least 200 members, in countries with populations of over 3 million. The number of seats rarely exceeds 400, even in very large countries. The upper house customarily has anywhere from 20, 50, or 100 seats, but almost always significantly less than the lower house.

A nation's Prime Minister is almost always the leader of the majority party in the lower house of parliament, but only holds his or her office as long as the "confidence of the house" is maintained. If members of parliament lose faith in the leader for whatever reason, they can often call a vote of no confidence and force the PM to resign. New elections are often called shortly thereafter.

Parliaments can be contrasted with Congresses in the model of the United States. Congresses do not typically select or dismiss the head of government.