<P> In the United Kingdom, 11 prime ministers have been defeated through a no - confidence motion . There has been only one (against James Callaghan) since 1925 . </P> <P> In modern times, passage of a motion of no confidence is a relatively rare event in two - party democracies . In almost all cases, party discipline is sufficient to allow a majority party to defeat a motion of no confidence, and if faced with possible defections in the government party, the government is likely to change its policies rather than lose a vote of no confidence . The cases in which a motion of no confidence has passed are generally those in which the government party's slim majority has been eliminated by either by - elections or defections, such as the 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry in the UK which was carried by one vote, forcing a general election which was won by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party . </P> <P> Motions of no confidence are far more common in multi-party systems in which a minority party must form a coalition government . This can mean that there have been many short - lived governments because the party structure allows small parties to defeat a government without means to create a government . This has widely been regarded as the cause of instability for the French Fourth Republic and the German Weimar Republic . More recent examples have been in Italy between the 1950s and 1990s, Israel, and Japan . </P> <P> To deal with this situation, the French placed a greater degree of executive power in the office of its President, who is immune from motions of no confidence, along with a two - round plurality voting system that makes easier the formation of stable majority governments . </P>

Robert's rule of order vote of no confidence