A parliamentary procedure by which a legislature votes on whether it still supports the government in office; if the motion to withdraw confidence passes, the government must resign or, depending on the constitution, call new elections. Its most cited early instance is the resignation of Lord North's government in Britain in 1782 after Parliament's confidence collapsed over the loss of the American war, though the convention that a government must resign after losing such a vote hardened into fixed constitutional practice only over the following decades. Some parliamentary systems, including Germany and Spain, require a constructive vote of no confidence, in which the legislature may remove a government only by simultaneously electing its replacement, precisely to prevent a no-confidence vote from leaving a period with no government at all.
Facts
Origin YearThe fall of Lord North's ministry in Britain in 1782 is the instance most often cited as the first government forced from office by a loss of parliamentary confidence, but it predates the fixed, expected convention that a government losing such a vote must resign, which hardened only over subsequent decades; this date records the first instance, not the date the convention became settled practice. Founding ContextA motion of no confidence lets a legislature remove a government that has lost its support without waiting for a scheduled election, reflecting the parliamentary principle that a government must retain the continuing confidence of the chamber that empowers it. The convention that a government defeated on such a vote must resign or seek a fresh election hardened gradually in Britain over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 2 Connections
Associated With
A confidence-and-supply agreement's first commitment is a promise to support the government, or abstain, on any motion of no confidence brought against it.
Source Vote of Confidence (Britannica)
Source Vote of Confidence (Britannica)
The government-initiated and opposition-initiated forms of a confidence test, contrasted directly.
Practiced By
Source Motion of no confidence (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Vote of Confidence (Britannica)
2. Institute for Government: Votes of Confidence
Institute for Government1782 Lord North sectionQuote, 1782 Lord North section
In 1782, a motion censuring the government of Lord North for its conduct of the war with America was the first time a government was brought down by a vote of confidence.
Motion of no confidence (Wikipedia)
WikipediaPracticed By: Germany, Article text
In Germany, a vote of no confidence in the federal chancellor requires the opposition, on the same ballot, to propose a candidate of its own whom it wants the federal president to appoint as its successor.
In Group: Parliamentary Confidence Procedures, Lead paragraph
In a deliberative assembly, a motion of no confidence is a motion declaring that a government or an officer, typically a government executive, is not fit to hold office.
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