Compa Topic 6 Legislatures and Executives
Compa Topic 6 Legislatures and Executives
Parliamentary System
In the Parliamentary system there is a strong connection between the chief executive and the
legislature a fusion of the branches of government that is absent in presidential systems.
This fusion creates several key attributes, including the process for selecting the chief executive, the
separation of the head of government and the head of state, and the lack of fixed terms for the chief
executive and national legislature.
When one political party wins a majority of seats in the parliament, the leader of that party usually
becomes prime minister. If no party has a majority of seats, two or more political parties typically form a
coalition.
A coalition is a group of parties that work together to pass legislation and occupy cabinet positions.
The new prime minister is the head of government. Prime minister normally given to the chief
executive of the government in a parliamentary system.
He or she forms and directs "the government" (the cabinet and other important ministry heads),
overseeing the actions of these officials and coordinating their efforts to formulate new policies in
parliamentary systems such as the United Kingdom and Germany, the chief executive is a sitting
member of parliament.
MP - Acronym for Member of Parliament.
The prime minister is almost always the leader of the ruling coalition's biggest party, but when a
coalition is made up of several parties of roughly similar size, the prime minister could come from one
of the smaller ones.
The formation of coalitions can involve some of the most intense political bargaining imaginable. The
prizes in this bargaining are policy positions and portfolios, positions in the government associated with
particular ministries.
Portfolio – a position in the government associated with particular ministry.
An individual may even be included in the government without heading a ministry or other government
department. Such a person is called a minister without portfolio. Since those put ring together a
coalition seek to control a majority of seats in the legislature, small parties can become kingmakers,
putting a coalition "over the top." In the process such parties may be rewarded with government
portfolios and policy victories.
The most common coalition is called a minimum necessary winning coalition – a coalition involving
only the parties required to gain control of a majority of the seats in the parliament.
If a parliament has 100 seats, the minimum necessary winning coalition is one that controls 51 seats.
A grand coalition involves two or more of the largest parties and gives the coalition control over a
large majority of seats. Grand coalitions are rare.
In most Cases, the multiparty system's largest parties do not get along.
As a result, grand coalitions mostly occur only when government unity is seen as necessary to address
serious economic, social, and political problems.
On rare occasions, the head of the state may also accept the formation of a minority government.
Minority Government – a situation in which the prime minister comes from a party that does not
control a majority of the seats in the parliament, and no official coalition agreement exists that creates
such a majority.
In a parliamentary system, the head of government (prime minister) is separate from the head of
state (monarch or president).
The head of state a weak president or a monarch-has little role in governing. Instead, as ceremonial
executive leader, the head of state provides continuity.
Parliamentary - MPs have a stipulated term in office, but this term is the maximum amount of time
before new elections must be held. Prior to that deadline, the prime minister could be removed or could
call early parliamentary elections.
Vote of Confidence – A vote called for by the sitting government in parliamentary system, if this vote fails, the
government is forced to resign, and new elections my be held.
Signaling displeasure by defeating a bill, the parliament can force the prime minister's hand. The
government itself picks a particular vote that it considers to be a confidence vote and states that it will
resign and call for new elections if it loses the vote.
Vote of No Confidence - Many systems allow a second option, called a vote of no confidence or vote of
censure – A vote sponsored by the opposition, which results in the formation of a new government or the
holding of new parliamentary elections if it passes.
1. Those opposed to the government sponsor this motion, and it usually forces the government to resign if
it passes. Again, the head of state is likely to call for new elections
2. In such a situation, although rules about whether this must occur differ from system to system.
The Oppositions - Because they fuse the executive and legislative branches of government, parliamentary
systems formalize the idea of an opposition to the government more than do presidential systems.
Broadly, all the MPs not from a party in the governing coalition are the opposition. Some parliamentary
systems take this a step further, allowing the main opposition party or parties to form a shadow
government.
Shadow Government – A group of MPs who would replace the current government of the opposition party or
parties were to win the next election.
Disadvantages
1. Instability
Particularly if coalitions are needed to produce a majority, parliamentary governments can be highly
unstable. Even majority party situations require strong party discipline to prevent government collapse.
As a result, the prime minister and other leading government officials may be in office only a year
before losing power, making it difficult for them to pursue their legislative agenda.
Presidential System – A political system in which the general population votes for the chief executive, there
are fixed terms for the chief executive and the legislature, and a separation of powers exists between the
executive and legislative branches.
Three basic features of presidential systems achieve this diffusion: selection of the chief executive by
the general electorate, fixed terms for the chief executive and legislature, and separation of powers
between the executive and the legislature that results in two independent branches of government.
A defining feature of presidential systems is how voters select the chief executive. As Figure 6.1
indicates, this vote is separate from the selection of members of the legislature, though the two votes
may be cast at the same time as part of a general election. If the system includes a vice president-
some systems have more than one vice president, others have none the vice president may also be
elected through a popular vote at the same time.
In practice, the selection of the president does not always rest solely with the general population.
• Presidential systems are noteworthy for the fixed terms of office. Voters who select a president in a system
with a four-year presidential term expect another presidential election in four years. In addition, legislatures
cannot remove presidents, other than through impeachment, and executives generally cannot force early
legislative elections. For good or bad, the president and the legislature are stuck with one another until their
terms.
All presidential systems separate legislative and executive powers, and many include provisions for the
override of presidential vetoes or require the legislature's consent when charge of a particular piece of
legislation. This also stabilizes a system over a presidential systems are less likely than parliamentary ones to
hurriedly undo of the government officials who were previously in power.
Thanks to the president's fixed term, a country with a sitting president who has become very unpopular
has few options to remove him or her.
The president may decide to resign, particularly if a constitutional crisis is looming.
The legislature may also try to impeach the president, but as discussed earlier, this is a difficult and
potentially destabilizing practice.
Most often the country is stuck with the unpopular president until the next election.
When the president's political party does not hold a majority of the legislature's seats, passing
legislation can be very difficult.
As Jimmy Carter discovered during his four years as US president (1977-81), even having a legislature
controlled by the president's own party is no guarantee that policies will pass quickly or resemble the
original initiatives once they do.
Those who dislike large government programs see this as a benefit. But when gridlock results in a
government shutdown over budget disputes or the failure to respond in a timely fashion to a looming
economic or military crisis, presidential systems can spiral out of control.
Many presidential systems increasingly concentrate power in the hands of the president over time, a
process known as creeping authoritarianism. Even when no crisis triggers "authoritarianization,"
presidents tend to enjoy their power. They may become frustrated with the checks and balances built
into the system and find ways to overcome them-including through amendments to the country's
constitution.
As presidential power increases, the legislature becomes little more than a rubber stamp political
opponents may face repression, elections may be rigged, and civil rights may be taken away from the
general population
Surprisingly, legislatures may go along with these steps, even supporting constutional sanctioning of
excessive presidential power. This is most likely when the president's political party has a majority of
seats in the legislature, but it can also happen when a president becomes very popular.
Students and policy makers in the West like to think that the general population dislikes political
tyranny, but across time and in different settings, the masses have had a soft spot for charismatic and
powerful chief executives.
A president can project charisma in a way that a five-hundred-seat parliament cannot In addition,
because the president is both the head of state and the head of government, he or she is in many ways
the symbol of the country. If challenges such an economic crisis arise in the country and the general
population warms to the idea that concentrating power in the hands of a single leader is necessary to
solve the problem, the president is the obvious choice.
SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS
Sometimes, the political system combines the basic characteristics of both a parliamentary and a
presidential system. Such a semi-presidential system has been used in several European countries,
particularly by post communist states, but also in France, Portugal, and Finland.
The system has a prime minister who is responsible to the parliament and often a member of it—as
well as a directly elected president. The president may have the authority to remove the prime minister
without the consent of the legislature. The president is separate from the legislative branch and is more
than just a figurehead.
A semi-presidential system requires more than the presence of both a president and a prime minister.
Many parliamentary systems have figurehead presidents. Like parliamentary systems, semi-
presidential systems generally separate the positions of head of state (the president) and head of
government (the prime minister). As head of state in a semi-presidential system, the president is never
just a figurehead. Both the president and prime minister have noteworthy powers.
Advantages
Advantage I: Providing Cover for the President – A semi-presidential system can shield the president from
criticism. Unpopular policies can be blamed on the prime minister. Countries with semi presidential systems,
such as post-Soviet Russia and France after 1958, have often desperately needed stability; to the extent that a
popular, stable president is a positive, the ability to deflect criticism onto a prime minister can be helpful.
Advantage 2: The Ability to Remove an Unpopular Prime Minister and Maintain Stability from the
President's Fixed Term – In most semi-presidential systems, the parliament has the power to remove an
unpopular prime minister. At the same time, the president in a semi-presidential system has a fixed term, which
helps to stabilize the system. Theoretically, this offers the best of both worlds: responsiveness to the will of an
unhappy electorate without the revolving door effect of some parliamentary systems.
Given their creativity in formulating a system with such diffuse power, it is surprising that the American
founders did not think of the semi-presidential system. Though the president can dismiss the prime minister in
most semi presidential systems, this does not necessarily mean that the prime minister will blindly do the
president's bidding. At a minimum, semi-presidential systems take the direct control of important seg ments of
the bureaucracy away from the president, limiting the tendency of presidents to concentrate their power over
time.
Disadvantages
Semi-presidential systems add another layer of complexity for voters. Consider a situation in which a president
and a prime minister belong to different political parties, the prime minister's party controls the parliament, the
country's economy is performing poorly, and parliamentary elections are approaching. Voters might decide that
the prime minister, as head of government, and the prime minister's party are responsible for the poor
performance and might vote for another party.
Legislatures – is a multimember body whose responsibility is making new laws. The term comes from its
members' legislating (lawmaking) role.
• In a democracy, legislators play a central role in policy creation. Elected by the general public
and are often called representatives.
• Most non-democracies also have legislatures, but the legislators often only appear to play an
essential role in the development of national laws.
• Legislatures craft and approve tax policies, authorize the government to spend money on
specific programs, and pass overall budgets.
• Making laws is the heart and soul of a legislature, its taxing and spending decisions are the
guts.
• Legislators often play important roles in selecting, approving, or removing other government
officials, including key ministerial appointments in the chief executives cabinet or judicial
nominees.
Number of Members
Length of Terms
• The length of time that members serve varies from legislature to legislature and depends on the
official length of a single term in office and legislators' prospects for reelection. In presidential
systems, the term of office is fixed.
• This single chamber of parliament is responsible for all legislative activities of the government,
including the formulation of legislation and the approval of the budget. The term unicameralism
refers to a legislature with only one chamber.
BICAMERAL - parliamentary system in which law-making authority is divided between two independent
chambers that make up the parliament.
• The upper house and lower house are the two entities that serve to ensure that all elements
of society are represented in the legislative branch of the government
Legislative Committee - A committee is a group of members in a legislative body that works on a particular
set of topics.
• Most legislative bodies use committees to help craft bills prior to a final vote.
• They may also play important roles in the oversight process, with certain committees monitoring
the activities of particular executive ministries, agencies, or departments.
The EXECUTIVE – typically called president or prime minister. In the past, titles such as king, queen, tsar, and
emperor were more common.