Abstract
Westminster model of democracy is based on the British system of government in which executive power is derived from the legislative power, e.g. the parliament and theoretically it is responsible to it. This model of democracy is closely related to the United Kingdom and some aspects could be found in New Zealand, Canada, Israel or India, and, moreover, this model was popular in the first post-colonial decade in the African independent states too.
The term ‘Westminster model’ was formulated by Arend Lijphart in his work Democracies. Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries (1984) as a opposite model to consensus democracy; he used it interchangeably to the term majoritarian democracy.
According to Lijphart’s definition, “the essence of Westminster democracy is majority rule, e.g. government by the majority and in accordance with the majority’s wishes comes closer to the democratic ideal than government by and responsive to a minority” which can be related to the essence of consensus democracy. Describing Westminster model of democracy, Lijphart distinguishes nine interrelated basic elements and he illustrates them by the features of the British political system, particularly as it operated in the period from 1945 to 1970.