Cabinet dictatorship
Topic: Parliament: Composition, Powers and Law-making · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"
Meaning
Cabinet dictatorship describes a situation where the cabinet controls the legislature instead of the other way round. When the ruling party has a large majority and its members obey the party whip (the party's voting instruction), the cabinet decides and Parliament just agrees. Class 11, Legislature puts it this way: "the Cabinet leads and the House merely follows." This weakens Parliament's job of checking the government.
Example
When a government has a stable majority, Class 11 calls the no-confidence motion "fictional rather than real". By contrast, coalition governments that depended on smaller parties fell in 1990, 1997 and 1999. Governments without a Rajya Sabha majority, as in 1977 and 2000, also had to make concessions to pass bills.
Don't confuse with
- Parliamentary sovereignty: the British idea that Parliament can make or unmake any law. It is about Parliament's legal power. Cabinet dictatorship is about who actually controls Parliament in practice.