A Comparison

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:◦ 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.

Non parliamentary systems are committee dominated –they have the power, and they can easily obstruct(interfere) in 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.

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

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.

Parliamentary System Presidential System

Fusion of executive and legislative branches

Executive and legislative branches separated

The assembly becomes a parliament, comprisingboth an executive (government) and assembly

The assembly remains an assembly only; theexecutive is a separate institution

Executive is divided into two parts: A prime minister(or chancellor) as head of government and a monarch(or ceremonial president) as head of state

Executive is not divided: Head of government(president) is also head of state

Prime minister usually appointed by head of state(symbolic); in actuality, selected from largest party inassembly

President elected by the people for a definite term (in America 2 years)

Prime minister appoints ministers; can be personalchoices or outcome of bargaining to form coalitiongovernment

President appoints heads of departments; usuallypersonal choices although often with consent ofassembly (as in U.S.)

Cabinet is collective body; since ministers exert greatdeal of influence (especially in coalitiongovernments), prime minister is just first amongequals

President is sole executive decision-maker; heads ofexecutive departments are subordinate; not a cabinetin parliamentary sense

Government (cabinet) is politically responsible toassembly; by withholding support, parliament may beable to force government to resign and cause head ofstate to appoint new government

Executive is responsible to constitution: Presidentsmust follow constitutional prescriptions

Head of government may dissolve parliament andcan threaten or coerce assembly by using this threat

President cannot dissolve or coerce assembly, thus,has no ability to threaten or coerce assembly

Parliament as a whole is supreme over its constituentparts (government and assembly), neither of whichmay dominate the other: Government depends on thesupport of the parliament but it may also dissolve it.Therefore, neither dominates

Assembly is ultimately supreme over other branchesof government; although power is separated,assembly generally has more options (including toimpeach a President) than President