Parliamentary and Presidential Systems

1
Parliamentary and Presidential Systems

• A Comparison

2
Parliamentary Systems

• Only one elected body a parliament of
  representatives. Its bills are law.
• Executive power is housed in a cabinet. Cabinet
  members typically are MPs who perform executive
  duties (foreign relations, etc.) in addition to
  their legislative duties.
• Cabinet only serves as long as there is
  parliamentary confidence. A Vote of Confidence
  can be called at any time, and a majority vote
  can unseat the existing cabinet (government
  falling) and call for a new one to be formed.
• But the cabinet can also hold the parliament in
  check. The leader of the cabinet (Prime minister,
  premiere, etc.) can disband a parliament and call
  for new elections.

3
Advantages/Disadvantages of Parliamentary Systems

• Advantages
• Always unified government
• Greater party discipline
• No veto power and typically no judicial review
• Clear lines of responsibility voters know who to
  blame/reward
• Disadvantages
• Divided government may be a good thing
• Judicial review and veto power are important
• Minority rights get washed away
• What if theres no clear majority? Then coalition
  governments must be formed between the main
  parties, and cabinet positions are divvied up
  accordingly.

4
Committees

• Nonparliamentary systems are committee dominated
  they have the power, and they can easily
  obstruct the work of government.
• Strong committees in a parliamentary system would
  weaken central unity Strong leadership is
  important to parl. Systems.
• Consequently, in Britain, for example, there are
  no standing committees per se, but ad hoc
  committees for each bill. No permanent staff and
  no open hearings, etc
• The parliament itself tries to maintain the open
  spirit of debate.

5
Presidential Systems

• The key distinction is the Separation of Powers
• Separation of Powers Doctrine and Checks and
  Balances
• Secondly and related to the first point, above
  there are differences in party systems/structures/
  politics/elections

6
Key differences between Presidential and
Parliamentary Systems Compared

• Policy leadership gt with presidential systems,
  but...
• Responsibility for policy more difficult to
  identify with presidential systems.
• Comprehensive policies harder to accomplish in
  presidential systems.
• Differences in recruitment of leaders.
• Differences in review/control of executive
  leaders.
• Symbolic/political aspects.