Tag: opposition

Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state. The title of “Official Opposition” usually goes to the largest of the parties sitting in opposition with its leader being given the title “Leader of the Opposition”.
In First Past the Post assemblies, where the tendency to gravitate into two major parties or party groupings operates strongly, government and opposition roles can go to the two main groupings serially in alternation. In this context, the opposition forms a recognised, even semi-official “government-in-waiting”. Its “opposing” can degenerate into a charade pending the eventual exchange of roles and occupation, or reoccupation, of the Treasury benches.
The more proportional a representative system, the greater the likelihood…