A conscience vote or free vote is a type of vote in a legislative body where legislators are each expected to vote according to their own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party. A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral

In many liberal democracies, particularly those that follow the parliamentary system of government, the elected members of a legislature who belong to a political party are usually required by that party to vote in accordance with the party line on significant legislation, on pain of censure or expulsion from the party. The term "liberal" in "liberal democracy" does not imply that the government of such a democracy must follow the political ideology of A parliamentary system, also known as parliamentarianism (and parliamentarism in American English) is a System of government in which In Politics, the line or the party line is an Idiom for a Political party or Social movement 's canon Agenda Sometimes a particular party member known as the whip is responsible for maintaining this party discipline. Whip is a role in party-based politics whose primary purpose is to ensure control of the formal decision-making process in a parliamentary legislature Party discipline is the ability of the Parliamentary group of a Political party to get its members to support the policies of the party leadership However, in the case of a conscience vote, a party declines to dictate an official party line to follow, and members may vote as they please. In countries where party discipline is less important, and voting against ones party is more common, conscience votes are generally less important.

Conscience votes are usually quite rare and are often about an issue which is very contentious, or a matter on which the members of any single party differ in their opinions, thus making it difficult for parties to formulate official policies . Usually, a conscience vote will be about religious, moral or ethical issues rather than about administrative or financial ones; matters such as the prohibition of alcohol, homosexual law reform and the legality of prostitution are often subject to conscience votes. Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, also known as Noble Experiment, refers to a Sumptuary law which prohibits Alcohol Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Prostitution is the act of performing Sexual activity in exchange for Money. In the British House of Commons there used to be a free vote (this, rather than "conscience vote", is the usual term in Britain) every few years on the restoration of the death penalty, abolished in 1964 (except for treason, for which it was abolished in the late 1990s), which was always rejected; this practice has now been abandoned. The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. In Britain, laws concerning abortion have always been subject to a free vote. An

The proposed bans on hunting with dogs proposed by Tony Blair's government were the subject of several free votes in Parliament from 2001; on each occasion the Commons voted for a ban and the House of Lords rejected it. Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking chase and sometimes killing of a fox traditionally a Red fox, by trained Foxhounds or other Scent hounds Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" In 2004 the government, trying to placate the Lords and other opponents of a ban, proposed only restriction and licensing of hunting, but anti-hunting MPs (mostly Labour backbenchers) forced through an amendment which would effect a total ban; seconds after the (also free) vote on the amendment, Alun Michael and the government finally bowed to pressure and agreed to force the ban through the Lords under the Parliament Act. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the For other meanings see Backbench A backbencher is a Member of Parliament (MP or a legislator who does not hold governmental Alun Edward Michael JP MP (born 22 August 1943 is a Welsh politician The Parliament Acts are two Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in 1911 and 1949 that form part of the Constitution of the United It passed in November 2004.

Other decisions which were taken by a free vote include abandoning the experiment with permanent summer time and bringing television cameras into Parliament. Daylight saving time ( DST

Sometimes a vote may be free for some parties but not for others. For instance, when the Conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed a motion to re-open the debate on Canada's same-sex marriage laws, his Conservatives and the opposition Liberals declared it a free vote for their members, while the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats both maintained party discipline to defeat the measure. The Conservative Party of Canada ( Parti conservateur du Canada) colloquially known as the " Tories " is a conservative The Prime Minister of Canada ( French: Premier ministre du Canada) is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus WikipediaManual of Style (biographies#Honorific prefixes --> Stephen Joseph Harper PC This article lists the On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the approval of the Civil Marriage Act. The Liberal Party of Canada ( Parti libéral du Canada) colloquially known as the Grits (originally " Clear Grits " is a major Canadian political The Bloc Québécois ( BQ) is a federal political party in Canada that defines itself as devoted to both the protection of Quebec's interests on a federal Principles policies and electoral achievement The NDP grew from populist, agrarian and democratic socialist roots

Global use of the conscience vote

Free votes are found in Canadian and some British legislative bodies, conscience votes in Australian and New Zealand legislative bodies. In the United States, almost all votes could be considered free votes to some degree, since parties exercise comparatively little control over the votes of individual legislators.

External links

Australia - Free Votes allowed by ALP and Liberal Party - 1955 to 2002

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