House of Commons of the United Kingdom

The elected chamber of the United Kingdom Parliament, where Members of Parliament represent constituencies, make laws, and scrutinize the government.

Prime Minister's Questions: A weekly Commons session in which the prime minister answers questions from MPs. It makes government scrutiny visible through direct questioning of the prime minister.
Member of Parliament: An elected representative who serves in a national legislature. Each Commons MP represents a constituency and participates in parliamentary business.
Model Parliament: The 1295 English Parliament summoned by Edward I, often treated as a precedent for representative parliamentary institutions. Its inclusion of elected county and borough representatives foreshadowed the Commons.
Parliamentary sovereignty: The principle that the UK Parliament has supreme legal authority to make or repeal law. The Commons exercises this authority through legislation alongside the Lords and Crown.
Senate of Canada: The appointed upper house of Canada's federal Parliament. Its appointed membership contrasts with the Commons' directly elected MPs.
Select committee: A parliamentary committee that examines a policy area, government department, or specific issue. Commons committees investigate policy and government work beyond the chamber's debates.
Constituency: A geographic electoral district whose voters choose a representative. Constituencies are the units represented by MPs in the Commons.
Simon de Montfort's Parliament: The 1265 English assembly that included representatives from counties and towns alongside nobles and clergy. It is an early landmark in the Commons' representative tradition.
Responsible government: A system in which the executive must retain the confidence of the elected legislature. The government must answer to the Commons and can fall after losing its confidence.
United States House of Representatives: The lower chamber of the United States Congress, elected from congressional districts. Both are elected lower chambers, but the US House operates in a presidential system.

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