parliamentary

Intermediate 🏛️ Government / Politics

Definition

Relating to a system of government where the executive branch emerges from the legislative body, as opposed to the American system where we elect people to fight each other across branches. In this setup, the Prime Minister can actually lose their job mid-term if Parliament gets cranky, which Americans find either admirably efficient or terrifyingly unstable. Also describes procedures so formal and rule-bound that it takes 20 minutes to ask a simple question.

Example Usage

The parliamentary debate devolved into members shouting 'Hear, hear!' and 'Shame!' while the Speaker desperately rang a bell and demanded order.

Source: Political science terminology

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supremum

The mathematical equivalent of 'as good as it gets without actually getting there'—the smallest upper bound of a set. ...