Presidential and Parliamentary government chapter 14 - 15

Presidential and Parliamentary government

by:Krisna Mendoza

    The legislative and the executive are elected independently of each other. Two distinct features of the presidential system: The first one parties are often more loosely organized than in parliamentary systems. Second, there is no guarantee that President’s party will also control the legislative.

      

     One representative is the US Congress has two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Leaders of each are elected by the party that has majority in the house, the committee chairs are appointed from the members of the majority party. Seniority is the principle here. In a parliamentary system, members vote along the party lines, this does not necessarily need to happen in a presidential system.

    

      Policy Leadership, presidents take more direct personal charge of policy than the cabinet does in a parliamentary system. The majority party and the cabinet are a team in a parliamentary system. But the president is directly elected by the people. Unlike parliamentary cabinets, the presidential cabinet does not contain party notables. The president is also the head of the army. Responsibility for policy is more difficult to identify in a presidential system because it is hard to blame anyone like the President, the Congress or the Supreme Court. 
 

      It is hard to understand policies in a presidential system than in a parliamentary system because a bill can be blocked at any stage in a presidential system, the governments are relatively slow to respond. In the parliamentary system, almost all the leaders come from careers in the parliament/politics. In a presidential system the President and his cabinet may have different backgrounds. 
 

    Parliamentary system the Prime Minister and ministers regularly report to the parliament. In a presidential system the members of the executive operate relatively isolated. The executive is split into the Prime Minister and the cabinet, but these functions are united in the President in a presidential system. Some parliamentary systems have monarchs, Kings and Queens, however they have symbolic functions.

   

     Parliamentary systems are simpler, more direct, and usually more efficient to make policies. However, there are other factors like the history, the culture, and the cleavages in the country. There are hostile parties in a country, it is hard to maintain stability. Then one can argue that it is better to have a presidential system. Presidential systems are also efficient for large countries. So it depends, there are a lot of factors to consider. In the US, the Supreme Court resolves the disputes between various power holders. 9 people can annul acts of Presidents and the laws passed by the Congress.

   Greenstein views leadership is a function of six qualities. Proficiency as a public communicator. Organizational capacity. Political skill to get other people to do what he wanted. Having an overarching goal and the ability to see how specific policies would help bring about that goal. The ability to process the torrent of advice and information that president receives on every issue. The ability to manage his emotions and turn them to constructive purposes, rather than being dominated by them and allowing them to diminish his leadership.

      Parliamentary systems are simpler, more direct, and usually more efficient to make policies. The legislative and the executive are elected independently of each other. Policy Leadership, presidents take more direct personal charge of policy than the cabinet does in a parliamentary system. Stage in a presidential system, the governments are relatively slow to respond.