Parliaments of the World: Names, Houses and Records

The correct answer is A, Israel. The Knesset is the single house legislature of Israel and has a fixed strength of 120 members elected by proportional representation; it sits at Jerusalem and its name comes from the assembly of the same size in ancient Jewish tradition. Option B is wrong because the legislature of Iran is the Islamic Consultative Assembly, commonly called the Majlis. Option C is wrong because Turkey has the Grand National Assembly, which first met in 1920 during the national struggle. Option D is wrong because Egypt has the House of Representatives. The group of names from western Asia is a favourite in matching questions, so keep Knesset, Majlis and Grand National Assembly together and attach each to its country. The Knesset is also asked for its strength, so remember the figure 120, fixed by the basic law of Israel.

The correct answer is B, Japan. The Japanese legislature is the Diet, called Kokkai in Japanese, and it is bicameral: the House of Representatives is the lower house and the House of Councillors the upper. The Prime Minister is chosen by the Diet, and the lower house prevails on a money matter. Option A is wrong because South Korea has the National Assembly, a single house. Option C is wrong because Mongolia has the State Great Khural, a name that comes from the old assemblies of the steppe. Option D is wrong because Vietnam has the National Assembly. Japan is asked often because the word Diet was once used for several European assemblies, which makes it a tempting option for Germany or Hungary. Hold the pair in memory: Diet for Japan, National Assembly for South Korea, and the Khural for Mongolia.

The correct answer is A, the Althing of Iceland. The Althing was founded in 930 at Thingvellir, where free men gathered in the open to settle disputes and declare law, and it still functions as the legislature of Iceland, which makes it the oldest surviving parliament in the world. Option B is wrong because the British Parliament, though called the mother of parliaments and the model for the Westminster system, grew from the thirteenth century councils and is younger. Option C is wrong because the Storting of Norway was set up in 1814 with the Norwegian constitution. Option D is wrong because the Riksdag of Sweden, although it has medieval roots, took its modern form much later. Oldest means Iceland, mother of parliaments means Britain.

The correct answer is B, the National People’s Congress of China. It is a single house body with close to three thousand members, chosen indirectly by the provincial congresses and the armed forces, and no other legislature comes near that size. Option A is wrong because the Indian Parliament, with 543 elected members in the Lok Sabha and a Rajya Sabha whose maximum strength under Article 80 is 250, is far smaller, though it is among the largest democratic legislatures. Option C is wrong because the United States Congress has 100 Senators and 435 Representatives. Option D is wrong because the European Parliament, which represents the member states of the European Union, has a few hundred members and is not a national legislature at all.

The correct answer is B, Russia. The Russian legislature is the Federal Assembly, and it has two houses: the State Duma, the lower house, whose members are elected, and the Federation Council, the upper house, which represents the regions of the federation. The name Duma goes back to the assembly created after the revolution of 1905. Option A is wrong because the Polish parliament is made of the Sejm and the Senate. Option C is wrong because the Ukrainian legislature is the Verkhovna Rada, a single house. Option D is wrong because Hungary has the National Assembly, which also works with one house. Keep Duma with Russia and Sejm with Poland; the two are often exchanged in options. Note also that the Federation Council is the upper house, so a question asking for the lower house of Russia is answered by the State Duma.

The correct answer is A, Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara. The Malaysian Parliament has the Dewan Rakyat, the house of the people, as its elected lower house, and the Dewan Negara, the house of the nation, as its upper house, which represents the states and holds appointed members. Option B is wrong because Majlis-e-Shoora is the Parliament of Pakistan, made of the National Assembly and the Senate. Option C is wrong because the Sejm and the Senat are the houses of the Polish parliament. Option D is wrong because Tshogdu is the name associated with the National Assembly of Bhutan, whose Parliament is the National Assembly with the National Council. Indonesia, close by, has the People’s Consultative Assembly, which is often offered as a distractor here.

The correct answer is C, Australia. The joint sitting of the two houses, provided for in Article 108 and summoned by the President to resolve a deadlock on an ordinary Bill, was taken from the Australian Constitution, along with the concurrent list and the freedom of trade and commerce between the units. Option A is wrong because from Canada the makers took a federation with a strong centre, residuary powers with the union, the appointment of state governors and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Option B is wrong because the United States gave fundamental rights, judicial review, the independence of the judiciary and the office of the Vice-President. Option D is wrong because from France came the republic and the words liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble.

The correct answer is A, Ireland. The Oireachtas is the Parliament of Ireland and consists of the President with two houses, Dail Eireann, the lower and elected house, and Seanad Eireann, the upper house. Ireland matters to Indian students for another reason: the directive principles of state policy, the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha and the method of electing the President were all drawn from the Irish Constitution. Option B is wrong because Iceland has the Althing, the oldest surviving parliament. Option C is wrong because Finland has the Eduskunta. Option D is wrong because Estonia has the Riigikogu. The four northern names are easy to confuse, so learn them as one group and separate Ireland from Iceland carefully. The Irish houses are worth a second look, since Dail Eireann is the elected chamber and Seanad Eireann the smaller upper one.

The correct answer is B, the United Kingdom. The phrase comes from the nineteenth century reformer John Bright, who said that England is the mother of parliaments, and it stuck to the Parliament at Westminster because so many countries, India among them, took their form of government from it; that form is called the Westminster model. Option A is wrong because Greece is called the cradle of democracy for the assembly of ancient Athens, which is a different claim and a common trap in this question. Option C is wrong because the French Parliament, with its National Assembly and Senate, grew out of the revolution of 1789. Option D is wrong because the United States Congress is a presidential legislature, not the parent of the parliamentary system.

The correct answer is B, Bangladesh. The Jatiya Sangsad, or National Parliament, is the single house legislature of Bangladesh and sits in the Sangsad Bhaban at Dhaka. Option A is wrong because Nepal has a Federal Parliament of two houses, the Pratinidhi Sabha, or House of Representatives, and the Rastriya Sabha, or National Assembly. Option C is wrong because Sri Lanka has a single house simply called Parliament, which replaced the earlier Senate and House of Representatives. Option D is wrong because Bhutan has a Parliament of the National Assembly and the National Council, under a monarchy that moved to a constitutional form in 2008. The South Asian names are asked together, so learn Sansad, Jatiya Sangsad, Majlis-e-Shoora and Pratinidhi Sabha as one set. The Maldives, with the People’s Majlis, is the fifth name in that neighbourhood group.

The correct answer is C, Sweden and Eduskunta, which is the wrong pair. The Eduskunta is the parliament of Finland; the parliament of Sweden is the Riksdag, a single house body. Option A is a correct pair, because the Storting is the Norwegian parliament, set up with the constitution of 1814. Option B is a correct pair, because the Folketing is the parliament of Denmark, which became a single house in 1953 when the upper house was abolished. Option D is a correct pair, because the State Great Khural is the parliament of Mongolia. The five northern names, Storting, Riksdag, Folketing, Eduskunta and Althing, should be learnt together, since examiners shuffle them against one another. A useful hook is that the three names ending in ting, Storting, Folketing and Althing, belong to Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

The correct answer is B, 100. The Senate of the United States has two members from every state, and with fifty states that makes a hundred Senators, each elected for six years, with the Vice-President of the United States presiding over the house. Option A is wrong because fifty is the number of states, not of Senators, and it is the trap the question is built around. Option C is wrong because 435 is the strength of the House of Representatives, the lower house, where seats are divided among the states in proportion to population. Option D is wrong because 120 is the strength of the Knesset of Israel. Compare this with India, where the Rajya Sabha may have at most 250 members under Article 80.