page_title: Parliament
section_title: Switzerland
hierarchical_section_title: Parliament / Early parliaments / Switzerland
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Tagsatzung im Badener Rathaus im Jahr 1531. English: The Federal Diet of Switzerland meeting in Baden in 1531. Français&#160;: La Diète fédérale, à Baden en 1531.
context_page_description: In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. The term is similar to the idea of a senate, synod or congress, and is commonly used in countries that are current or former monarchies, a form of government with a monarch as the head. Some contexts restrict the use of the word parliament to parliamentary systems, although it is also used to describe the legislature in some presidential systems, even where it is not in the official name.
  Historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies, e.g. medieval parliaments.
context_section_description: The Federal Diet of Switzerland was one of the longest-lived representative bodies in history, continuing from the 13th century to 1848.
caption: The Federal Diet of Switzerland
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