Ukraines parliment got dissolved. and french government

[link to www.cnn.com]

French government has dissolved as well.

[link to www.cnn.com]

The American equivalent (I would assume there is something in the Constitution legally giving this power) would be if the Senate and House leaders went to the President and say "We can't get anything done, everyone's divided, we can't even get a vote on the laws, and we can't react properly to any challenges facing the country, we're stepping down". So then the President says "okay, congress is dissovled, and everyone is up for reelection this fall" and so it would be.


You can think of dissolving parliament as a way of calling an election. This isn't, say, the equivalent of the Galactic Senate being abolished to create the new Galactic Empire.

Most parliamentary systems give the head of state the power to prorogue or dissolve the parliament. It varies depending on country, but for instance Ukraine and France give a lot of authority to the President over the parliament.

In both cases (Ukraine + France) the Prime Minister had stepped down due to parliament being unable to get anything done; thus the crises and parliament being dissolved and elections being called. I don't know the particulars of these countries, but I would guess that if the PMs had not stepped down, the ability to of the President to dissolve parliament would be much weaker (not sure if through legal or merely political means).

As a specific example, the Canadian Prime Minister (being the head of government and leader of parliament) can request parliament to be dissolved by the Governor General (the largely symbolic Canadian Head of State) in the case of a constitutional crisis, or in the event of a vote of no-confidence. Parliament is technically "dissolved" every five years, when normal elections would be called.

So if the ruling government doesn't have enough votes to pass a budget through the parliament, the Prime Minister either needs to step down as leader and allow a new government to form, or the PM can advise the Governor General to dissolve parliament, thus calling an election. This is to avoid the grid-lock seen in systems like in the States. Basically it guarantees that things get done.. if the parliament can't get a budget passed, election time. If your party is not in a shape for a snap election, they are more willing to compromise. At least, that's the theory of it.