Parliamentary and Presidential Systems A Comparison

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.

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 there’s no clear majority? Then coalition governments must be formed between the main parties, and cabinet positions are divvied up accordingly.

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.

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

Key differences between Presidential and Parliamentary Systems Compared  Policy leadership > 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.