PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM

PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

• President is both chief executive and head of state.

• Head of state and chief executive are two separate offices.
• Head of state is primarily a ceremonial role, with chief executive being head of nation’s legislature.

• President is elected independently of the legislature, by an electoral college chosen by a vote of the people every 4 years.
• Direct mandate makes president’s power more legitimate.

• Election of the PM is chosen by the legislature, not the people. Typically, majority party in Parliament chooses executive.

• President’s broadest powers rest in foreign affairs. Has the right to deploy military in most situations, but does not have the right to officially declare war.

• PM has right to deploy military.

• All executive power is concentrated in the president.
• Iraq disdained a presidential system out of fears that such a system would be tantamount to Shiite domination.
• Separation of powers establishes the presidency and the legislature as two parallel structures. This allows each structure to supervise the other, preventing abuses.

• With a collegial executive, power is more divided.
• Power is more evenly spread out. Higher focus on voting for a party and its political ideas than voting for an actual person.

• President has right to veto bills from legislature, preventing their adoption.
• Legislature may override veto e.g. American president requested the right to approve treaties without the consent of the legislature. Congress denied this bill.

• Party can break free from PM on certain issues. E.G. Iraq war. Many labours voted against war, and it was only with Conservative backing that the war was approved.

• Tend to be less disciplined, and legislators are free to vote their conscious with fewer repercussions from their party.

• Fusion of legislative and executive branches lead to a more disciplined structure among party members.

• Debate system: Filibuster. Right to prolong speeches to delay legislative action.

• Debate system: Cloture. Can call for an end to debate so that voting can begin.

• President can be removed from office by the legislature.

• PM can be removed from office by the legislature – ‘vote of no confidence’, where a majority of parliamentary members vote to remove the PM from office. A new election is then called.

• Elections are held regularly, every two years, with elected officials serving two, four or six year terms depending on which office they hold.

• Elections are not held at regular intervals [Britain]. Additionally, when new elections are held, the people have to elect existing MoP. If people disapprove of govt. they have to wait 5 years or until PM asks Monarch for new elects to elect new MoP.

• President, by virtue of a fixed term, provides more stability.
• However, makes it difficult to remove them before their term has expired.

• PM that can be dismissed at any time causes instability.

• Formation of legislation: leaders in congress are authors of legislation, which then goes through a series of Congressional Committees before reaching the House and Senate Floors for a vote. If legislation passes, it goes through to president for approval before becoming law.
• Legislation is thus viewed by more people.

• Formation of legislation: PM’s govt. proposes legislation that Parliament votes on.
• Legislative process is much quicker as only one entity is responsible for proposing legislation.
• Stronger than P – PM has more opportunity to push through his own legislation, as to be in power already has backing of Parliament.
• No truly independent body to oppose and veto legislation passed by parliament, thus no substantial check on legislative power.

• If different party to president is elected for majority in congress, President can still stay on.
• E.g. after Democrats took control of Congress, Bush was left on.
• HOWEVER, he was not able to pass any significant legislation not written by Democrat Congressional leaders.
• Hence, power of President weakens considerably.

• If PM’s party doesn’t win elections, he/she is replaced by a PM from winning party.

• Every state requires federal legislators elected to congress reside within the state they are running to represent.

• Lack of residency restrictions governing where candidates may or may not run.

• Party loyalty is not nearly as important, with the reliance being on money and name recognition.

• Party loyalty is paramount to any successful government and political party.

• PM is at weakest when leader of a coalition govt. e.g. Germany and India. This is because with no majority party, stalemate often occurs in parliament for passing of legislations and other issues.

• Parliamentary systems that have turned into dictatorships: Nazi Germany, Indira Gandhi’s India and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

• No third world presidential system successfully made the transition to democracy without experiencing coups and other constitutional breakdowns.

• Linz, Dahl and Riggs claim parliamentary system is less prone to authoritarian collapse. Two-thirds of Third World countries since WWII established parliamentary systems successfully, making the transition to democracy.

• Recent World Bank study found that parliamentary systems are associated with lower corruption.