In the UK, Canada and other ' first past the post' electoral systems, this period is usually very brief, except in the rare occurrence of a hung parliament as occurred both in the UK in 2017 and in Australia in 2010. The term also refers to the periods between the election of a new parliament and the establishment of a new government from that parliament in parliamentary democracies, usually ones that employ some form of proportional representation that allows small parties to elect significant numbers, requiring time for negotiations to form a government. A failed state is usually in interregnum. Historically, the longer and heavier interregna were typically accompanied by widespread unrest, civil and succession wars between warlords, and power vacuums filled by foreign invasions or the emergence of a new power. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin inter-, 'between' and rēgnum, 'reign' ), and the concepts of interregnum and regency therefore overlap.
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or 'gap' in a government, organization, or social order.
