Znaczenie modelu westminsterskiego w kształtowaniu się pozycji ustrojowej parlamentu w Papui-Nowej Gwinei

Abstract

The article presents the issues of the political position of the parliament in one of the largest states of the South Pacific subregion – Papua New Guinea. Shaping its legal and political system, the state profoundly derived from the British practice. This process was initiated in the first decade of the 20th century as a result of Australian rule, which had lasted by that time the state gained its independence in 1975. As a consequence, all the basic features of Westminster democracy were adopted, with the unitary form of government and the unicameral parliament. The analysis allowed to indicate that the character of Papuan democracy has evolved over the years, and therefore some elements of the Westminster model have become inadequate and not very effective. These changes concerned mainly superior state structures, including the parliament. It is a body increasingly controlled by the executive nowadays, that lost its original representative character. In this article, the author has adopted the following research methods: an analysis of legal sources and a critical analysis as well as a descriptive method. The text was divided into three main parts, the introduction and the conclusion.