For four centuries, parliamentary democracy has been at the center of political thought. It represented an organizational framework that ensured the limitation of state power and, subsequently, its exercise according to the will of the Parliament and, indirectly, the people.

However, as we transitioned from the 20th to the 21st century, its dynamics seem to have been exhausted: The party identification of the parliamentary majority and the governing parties tends to make the political responsibility of the latter illusory and undermines their obligation to be accountable to the Parliament and the electorate.

Furthermore, the retreat of the nation-state as a field of political action, the emerging dominance of the neoliberal delusion that globalization will ensure benevolent governance based on immutable rules of ethics, make the discussion about the parliamentary system appear outdated.

This particularly timely study seeks to explore the contradictions embedded in the parliamentary system of post-modernity and to illuminate the contribution of political responsibility to the realization of democratic principles. If the goal of democracy is the accountability of the rulers, the parliamentary system renders governmental policies subject to organized confrontation and imposes a comparison with the commitments that the Prime Minister and his team undertake upon assuming power.

Governance based on the political mandate that the rulers receive upon their appointment and the elevation of their actions to the will of the people serve as a guarantee of political self-determination, but also as a bulwark against the shrinkage of politics as a method for regulating social relations.