Re: OT: For information only !

Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:

> En réponse à Tristan Mc Leay :
>
>
> >No... the Congress is a congress. There's two distinct systems: the
> >Parliamentary system, which has parliaments, as used by Britain and most
> >Commonwealth countries, and the Presedential system, which has
> >congresses as used by America and various other countries... I think the
> >difference is that the executive is kept separate from the legislature
> >in one and mixed in with the other, but it could be that I'm focussing
> >on the wrong distinction...
>
> Well, as Joe said, France is a presidential system and has a parliament. My
> understanding is that "congress" and "parliament" are just two different
> words for the same thing: "a legislative body composed of two houses".
> Unless someone can prove me that the American Congress is not composed of a
> Senate and a House of Representatives (as I've been taught), I will
> consider those two terms as referring to the same thing. It's not the first
> time Americans feel the way to name things differently from other people :)
> .
Where did the bicamerality requirement come from? I've repeatedly seen the
(unicameral) Swedish _riksdag_, or Diet_, refered to as a "parliament" in
English. The European Parliament is also unicameral.

Given the use of "parliamentary" to describe a system where the executive is
answerable to an elected legislative assembly, one could think "parliament"
should refer to a such assembly, and "congress" to one that to whom the
executive is not answerable. I do not know if anyone is upholding a such
distinction, however.

                                                           Andreas

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