1. INSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE 3 PUB 101 (WEEK 14)

2. Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

3.  Political systems can be classified into three types:  Presidential  Parliamentary  Mixed  Which main question do we ask to distinguish b/w three types?  “Which actors can remove the government from office?”  the relationship between the government, the legislature, the president (if there is one.)

4. The LEGISLATURE CANNOT remove the government The LEGISLATURE CAN remove the government BOTH LEGISLATURE & the PRESIDENT CAN remove the government PRESIDENTIAL PARLIAMENTARY MIXED Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

5. Is the government responsible to the elected legislature? Is there an independently (directly or indirectly) elected president? Is the government responsible to the president? THREE BASIC QUESTIONS Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

7. (1) Is the government responsible to the elected legislature?  Government ? chief executive & the ministers  Responsibility of the govt. to the legislature: legislative majority has the constitutional power to remove a government from office without cause.  The mechanism? vote of no confidence Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

8. TYPES OF VOTE OF (NO) CONFIDENCE  Vote of no confidence  Initiated by the legislature  A question on whether the govt. should remain in office.  If the government does NOT obtain a legislative majority in this vote, it must resign.  Constructive vote of no confidence  Requires a proposal of an alternative govt.   to form a govt. in case the incumbent loses a vote of no confidence.  Vote of confidence  is initiated by the government;  if the government does not obtain a legislative majority in this vote, it must resign. Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

9.  What happens when the incumbent loses a Vote of No Confidence?  In some countries when governments lose, parties in the legislature will bargain among themselves and form a new government without an election (Italy, Denmark).  In other countries, a government defeat almost always leads to a new election (Ireland). Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

10.  How is ‘Costructive Vote of No Confidence’ different from ‘Vote of No Confidence’? Why a different form?  In Germany, when you propose a confidence motion you must also specify a government alternative. In effect, one government is removed and a new one installed in a single step. The Weimar Republic had seen high levels of government instability and this was seen as an important institutional device to reduce instability in the future. There is a similar rule in Belgium and Spain. Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

11. What is ‘Vote of Confidence’? Who can initiate it? Why?  Initiated by the government  Why? Tactical uses 1) Can be attached to a piece of legislation If the govt. is unsure whether the legislation can pass Turn the vote on legislation on the continued existence of the government. What is the expectation of the government by doing this? Why? Bringing down the government means risking the existing seats.  the opposition would vote yes! Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

12. What is ‘Vote of Confidence’? Who can initiate it? Why?  Initiated by the government  Why? Tactical uses 2) Used to unite a divided party 3) Used to humiliate critics of the incumbent (who are unwilling to vote the government out of office)  May backfire! Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

14. (2) Is there an independently (directly or indirectly) elected president?  Independently elected? a separate electoral process Directly or indirectly elected  What if there is no independently elected president? Which political system?  Parliamentary System Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

15.  What if there is an independently elected president?  Can we conclude that this is a presidential system?  Italy and Germany have indirectly elected presidents, but no one claims they are presidential.  Turkey, Austria and Ireland have directly elected presidents, but no one really refers to them as presidential.  An independently elected president is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a presidential regime.  Need ‘independence from the legislature’ the president is elected to serve a fixed term in office and cannot be removed by the legislature.  presidential system Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

16. (3) Is the government responsible to the president?  Gvt. responsibilty to the president? the ability of the president to dismiss the government and individual ministers (France & Portugal) to dissolve the legislature (France).  Is the government responsible to the president?  If NO, then the regime is parliamentary. President is the “head of the state”  If YES, then the regime is mixed Forms of Executive-Legislative Relations

18. What Distinguishes Them?  A presidential democracy  is one in which the government does NOT depend on a legislative majority to exist.  A parliamentary democracy  is one in which the government depends ONLY on a legislative majority to exist.  A mixed democracy  is one in which the government depends BOTH on a legislative majority and on an independently elected president to exist.

21. PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

22.  A parliamentary democracy?  is one in which the government depends only on a legislative majority to exist.  The government comprises  a prime minister and the cabinet.  The prime minister?  is the political chief executive and head of the government.

23.  The cabinet  is composed of ministers whose job it is to be in the cabinet and head the various government departments.  Ministerial responsibility  cabinet ministers must bear ultimate responsibility for what happens in their ministry.  Collective cabinet responsibility  ministers must publicly support collective cabinet decisions or resign.

24.  In which circumstances (when) do new governments form? 1) Following elections. 2) In the middle of an inter-election period, following the resignation of the current government.

25.  What is the key characteristic of the government formation process in a parliamentary democracy?  the government must enjoy the “confidence” of the legislature both to come to power and to stay in power.   All governments need the support of a legislative majority.  What is the mechanism which demonstrates that the government enjoys the support of the legislative majority?

26.  Investiture Vote:  A formal vote in the legislature to determine whether a proposed government can take office.  Implicit support:  Even if the potential government does not have to pass an investiture vote, it must still have the implicit support of a legislative majority at all times. WHY?  This is because of the ability of the legislature to call a vote of no confidence at any time.

27.  How do governments actually come to power in a parliamentary democracy?  Consider the following election results from Germany in 1987.

28. The German Bundestag after the 1987 Elections (p.404) PartySeatsPercentage Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU)22344.87 Social Democrats (SPD)18637.42 Free Democrats (FDP)469.26 Greens428.45 Minor parties00.00 Total497100 How do we know what the government will be?

29.  We know that a potential government must enjoy the confidence of the legislature to come to power.  What types of government are we likely to observe?  If a single party controlled a majority of the legislative seats, we might expect that party to form the government  A single-party majority government.  But what happens when there is no majority party?

30.  251 of the 310 (81%) governments that formed in Western Europe from 1945 to 1998 emerged from political situations in which there was no majority party.  It is relatively rare to have majority parties in parliamentary democracies.  But what happens when there is no majority party?  All we know is that the potential government must control a legislative majority.  There are no rules as to WHO should be in this legislative majority.

31.  How does the government formation process work?  The head of state presides over the government formation process.  The extent to which the head of state plays an active role varies from country to country. In some countries, the head of state chooses a formateur In other countries, the head of state chooses an informateur

32.  Who is an informateur.  the person designated to pick a formateur to form the government.  Who is a formateur?  The person designated to form the government  The leader from the party winning the most seats normally acts as formateur.  The formateur is often the PM designate  Once the formateur is chosen, s/he needs to put a government together that is acceptable to a legislative majority.

33.  How does the power of the formateur (PM designate) in forming a government change under different legislative compositions?  The ability to nominate cabinet members is one of the most important powers held by the prime minister (formateur).  In single-party governments, the PM has enormous discretion.  In coalition governments, the PM is obviously more constrained. WHY?

34.  What happens (what is next) once the cabinet is nominated?  The support of a legislative majority may or may not have to be demonstrated in an investiture vote.  If the investiture vote is successful (or there is no vote), then the head of state simply appoints the cabinet to office.

35.  Until when can this new government rule?  The government is free to rule until (a) there is an election or (b) it loses a vote of no confidence.  What happens if the investiture vote fails?  The bargaining process starts again;  There may or may not be elections beforehand

36.  What happens if an incumbent government is defeated in a vote of no confidence or a new election is called?  Would the govt. resign immediately and leave the executive office empty?  The incumbent government remains in office and runs the country as a caretaker government.  The caretaker government remains in office until the next government formation process is completed.  In most countries, there is a strong norm that caretaker governments will not make important policy changes.

38.  Separation of powers?  Not really..  The leader of the party or coalition of parties w/ most support in parliament becomes the PM.  The PM forms a cabinet (usually chosen from members of parliament) Cabinet as the core of govt.  The govt. is dependent upon the support of parliament. The Parliament may remove the executive from power with a vote of no confidence The parliament can reject, accept & amend legislation.  The executive can dissolve the legislature