Different forms of government

• The defining characteristics of parliamentary and presidential democracy

• The question of the origin and survival of the executive and legislative branches.
• In a parliamentary system, executive authority originates from the assembly.
• The precise institutional rules for determining who shall form a cabinet vary from
one parliamentary system to another, but for a system to be parliamentary, the
process of forming a government must fall to the majority party, if there is one.
• If there is not, it must derive from bargaining among those politicians with an
elective mandate from the most recent assembly elections.
• Once formed, the government survives in office only so long as it does not lose
the ‘confidence’ of the majority
 Parliamentary System - Outline
• Definition
• Origin: Ancient Rome, British 1258/1295, 1688
• Evolution of the Indian Parliamentary system
• Characteristics:
1. legislature takes the responsibility of government
2. Majority party/Coalition rule
3. Representative Democracy
4. Dual Executive – Nominal and Real, Defacto and Dejure and President and PM
5. Collective responsibility, Collegiate in nature, Cabinet system
6. No fixed term for executive
7. Leadership of PM
 In details
•Executive power is vested in the elected parliament or legislature
•The head of government is usually the prime minister
•The prime minister is accountable to the parliament
•The government can be dissolved by a vote of no confidence
•The government is formed by the majority party or coalition
•The prime minister can be removed by a vote of no confidence
•The government is responsible for both legislative and executive functions
•The parliament has significant control over legislation and policy-making
•The prime minister can dissolve the parliament and call for new elections
•The parliament can dismiss the government through a vote of no confidence
Presidential
• In a presidential system, on the other hand, the origin and survival of executive and legislative
authority are separate.
• The first criterion of the definition of presidentialism contrasts starkly with that for parliamentarism, in
that it denotes the existence of a chief executive whose authority originates with the electorate.
• The second criterion specifies that, unlike in a parliamentary system, the chief executive is not subject
to dismissal by a legislative majority.
• Furthermore, neither is the assembly subject to early dissolution by the president.
• Both branches thus survive in office independent of one another.
• The addition of the third criterion, regarding the president’s authority, is important for establishing the
independence of the president not only in terms of origin and survival, but also in the executive
function, for it sets out that the cabinet derives its authority from the president and not from
parliament.
• It further stipulates that the president has some legislative authority, and thus is not ‘merely’ the
executive.
• It is the fact of separate origin and survival combined with shared lawmaking powers that generates
the necessity for the executive and legislature to bargain with one another, such that legislative change
is a joint product of both elected branches.
Presidential - Outline
• Meaning and origin
• Separation of Powers theory propounded by Montesquieu
• The basic theoretical underpinning of presidentialism has its origins in The Federalist
Papers,
• The theory of constitutional design propounded by James Madison therein provides a
basis for comparing semi presidentialism to both of the pure types.
• The key idea of the Federalists is to characterize political systems by how they channel
political ambition.
• Like contemporary rational-choice institutionalists, Madison took it as axiomatic that
political actors are motivated by personal gain.
• He accepted selfish motivation as inevitable and sought to harness it for the greater good.
• Doing so, he argued, entailed establishing a system of institutions that structure and check
that ambition.
• Thus, Madison wrote in Federalist 51, the design of government ‘consists in giving to
those who administer each department (i.e. branch) the necessary constitutional means
 Presidential
•Executive power is vested in a separate elected president
•The head of government is the president
•The president is not directly accountable to the legislature
•The president's term is fixed and not subject to a vote of no confidence
•The president forms the government and appoints cabinet ministers
•The president cannot be removed by a vote of no confidence
•Separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches
•The president has a considerable role in policy-making and legislation
•The president cannot dissolve the legislature or call for elections
•The president cannot be dismissed by the legislature
Advantages and Disadvantages of
each form of government
 Difference
1. In a parliamentary system, executive power is vested in the elected parliament or legislature, while in a
presidential system, it is vested in a separate elected president.
2. The head of government in a parliamentary system is usually the prime minister, whereas in a presidential
system, it is the president.
3. The prime minister in a parliamentary system is accountable to the parliament, whereas the president in a
presidential system is not directly accountable to the legislature.
4. The government in a parliamentary system can be dissolved by a vote of no confidence, but the
president's term in a presidential system is fixed and not subject to a vote of no confidence.
5. The government in a parliamentary system is formed by the majority party or coalition, whereas the
president in a presidential system forms the government and appoints cabinet ministers.
6. The prime minister in a parliamentary system can be removed by a vote of no confidence, whereas the
president in a presidential system cannot be removed by a vote of no confidence.
7. In a parliamentary system, the government is responsible for both legislative and executive functions,
while a presidential system follows the separation of powers between the executive and legislative
branches.
8. The parliament in a parliamentary system has significant control over legislation and policy-making, while
the president in a presidential system has a considerable role in policy-making and legislation.
9. The prime minister in a parliamentary system can dissolve the parliament and call for new elections,
whereas the president in a presidential system cannot dissolve the legislature or call for elections.
10.The parliament in a parliamentary system can dismiss the government through a vote of no confidence,
whereas the president in a presidential system cannot be dismissed by the legislature.
Indian and UK differences
Indian and USA differences
Semi Presidential: Case study
France
• If we think of parliamentary and presidential government ideal types,
we must acknowledge that there are numerous regimes that contain
some elements of one and some elements of the other, and are thus
hybrids.
• However, not all combinations of these elements qualify a regime as
‘semipresidential,’ unless that term is nothing more than a synonym for
‘hybrid.’
• If it is to denote a specific class of hybrids, then we should allow for the
existence of other hybrids that might perform quite differently from a
system with a popularly elected non-ceremonial president and an
assembly-dependent cabinet
Semi Presidential system
• An increasingly common form of government, semi-presidentialism,
also known as a ‘mixed’ or ‘hybrid’ form of government with a dual
executive, is a distinct political system that combines the features of
the two pure forms of government, presidentialism and
parliamentarianism.
• It offers, therefore, a middle ground between the two marginal forms
of constitutional design.
• In semi-presidentialism, a directly elected president shares executive
powers with a prime minister and a cabinet (the government), which
are appointed by, and collectively responsible to legislature.
• The semi-presidential system can, in fact, be considered the most
consistent trial for the creation of a tertio genus, one that lies
conceptually midway between these two classic models.
• The semi-presidential system has come aboUt4 essentially as a means
of tackling the inadequacles or faults of these two.
Conclusion
Comparative Government/Regime/Constitution: Chart Assignment
Countries Identified: Argentina and Belgium
Argentina Belgium
System Democratic Republicans Democratic Constitutional Monarchy

Executive Presidential King – PM - Parliamentary Kingdom of Belgium

Legislature Congreso Nacional – Federal Parliament - Bicameral

(Bicameral)

Judiciary SC – 9 Constitutional Court

Separation Power

Constitution Civil law – 1853 1831

Federal 23 provinces Federal

Election Process Two round system

Party System Multi – Party Multi - Party

Coalition