4.2: Institutions within Democracy

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Distinguish the functions of legislative, executive and judicial branches.
• Define Electoral Systems and Political Parties.
• Determine the implications of political party composition and organization.

Introduction

Aside from considering the variety of ways democracy can manifest across different countries, we can also look at some of the institutions which tend to be common within democracies. In many ways, the institutions described in the first portion of this section (4.2.1) are akin to building blocks; each block has distinct functions, wielding distinct forms of power and operating within what political scientists would call a separation of powers with checks and balances. Separation of powers is a term that divides government functions into three areas: the legislature, tasked primarily with the making of laws; the executive, who carries out or enforces these laws; and the judiciary, tasked with interpreting the constitutionality of laws. These three institutions generally operate under a process of checks and balances, which is a system that attempts to ensure that no one branch can become too powerful.Traces of the historical underpinnings of separation of powers found in the writings of Harrington, Montesquieu among others. Other hallmark institutions of democracies are their electoral systems and the presence of political parties, which are both discussed in the second portion of this section (4.2.2). Electoral systems, simply put, are voting systems; an electoral system provides a set of rules that dictate how elections (and other voting initiatives) are conducted and how results are determined and communicated. Political parties are groups of people who are organized under shared values to get their candidates elected to office to exercise political authority. All of these institutions, taken together, contribute to the many unique democracies that exist today, and require, at the very least, a brief overview to consider their importance and implications to democracy today.

Executive, Legislative and Judicial

While some elements and characteristics of democracy vary, one constant commonality is the separation of powers among institutions within governments. As described above, this separation of powers promotes checks and balances because it provides for power to be spread throughout multiple branches of government with the intention of splitting up power between institutions so that no single branch has too much power but instead empowering all branches with their own institutionalized powers. The three branches of concern include: (1) the legislature; (2) the executive; and (3) the judiciary.

The legislative branch is tasked with performing three main functions:(1) making and revising laws; (2) providing administrative oversight to ensure laws are being properly executed; (3) and providing representation of the constituents to the government. The primary, and most important, function of the legislature is to make laws. Members of the legislature, elected by the people, represent their interests and make laws on their behalf.There are three main types of legislatures worth noting. First, the consultative legislature is one where the legislature advises the leader, or group of leaders, on issues relating to laws and their application. In the consultative legislature, members could either be elected or appointed. Second, the parliamentary legislature is one where members are elected by the people, enacts laws on their behalf, and also serves as the executive branch of government. Finally, the congressional legislature is one where groups of legislators, elected by the people, make laws and share powers with other branches within the government. This latter case is the one utilized in the U.S. In the U.S., Congress’ powers are substantial, especially relative to the other branches of government, when looking at its constitutional mandates. Congress can levy taxes, borrow money, spend money, regulate interstate commerce, establish a national currency, establish a post office, declare war, raise and support an army and navy; establish courts; and pass all laws “necessary and proper” to complete their work. Beyond this, Congress can propose amendments to the constitution and call for a constitutional convention. The Congress could also admit new states to the country. While legislatures can manifest in different ways, the U.S. Congress has two bodies, the House of Representatives, which contains 435 members (representation from states vary based on population size, determined every 10 years by the U.S. census), and the Senate, which contains 100 senators (two for each state). The two most popular types of legislatures are parliamentary and congressional. Interestingly, while most of the legislatures in North and South America are congressional legislatures (with the exception of Canada, which has a parliamentary legislature), European legislatures have tended to be parliamentary. The main difference between parliamentary and congressional systems is in how they structure their power. In the congressional system, power is divided for main functions, but shared for others. In the parliamentary system, the legislative body serves as both the legislative and the executive branches. In this system, the head of government, chosen by whoever the majority political party is at that time, attempts to build a majority group in the legislature to get laws made. If the leader is unable to build coalitions to reach agreements on legislation, laws cannot get made.

Within Democracies, the executive branch is typically made up of a singular leader, a leader with an assistant (vice-president) or a small group of leaders who have institutional powers, and serves as both the head of government and the head of state. In their capacity as head of government, chief executives must run and manage the day-to-day business of the state. As the head of state, the chief executive must represent the country in the global arena, for formal gatherings to dictate policies as well as for ceremonial responsibilities.

The final “building block” of government to identify is the judiciary, in some manifestations called the Judicial Branch, which refers to the part of government where laws can be interpreted and enforced. In some countries, the judiciary is a third branch of government, like in the U.S. In other countries, the judiciary, or its responsibilities of interpreting the constitutionality of laws, is shared with other branches of government. In authoritarian regimes, the judiciary tends to be subservient to the executive and legislative branches. In democracies, the judiciary is one of the divisions which functions to uphold the separation of powers, so that no one branch can become too powerful. In the U.S., the judicial branch is composed of the Supreme Court, the only court mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, and has the sole power of judicial review, which is the ability to interpret the constitutionality of laws, and in doing so, the ability to overturn decisions made by lesser courts when doing so. Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson was against forming a third branch of government tasked with this responsibility, and instead, he wanted the ability to interpret the constitutionality of laws to be held by the legislature. Through the process of debate, Jefferson lost the argument, and a third branch of government was created for this purpose.

Electoral Systems & Political Parties

As described previously, electoral systems, simply put, are voting systems; an electoral system provides a set of rules that dictate how elections (and other voting initiatives) are conducted and how results are determined and communicated. Elections are the mechanism through which leaders get chosen around the world. Rules that are relevant to an electoral system can include those that lay out when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who is allowed to run as a candidate, how ballots are collected and can be cast, how ballots are counted, and what constitutes a victory. Usually, voting rules are set forth by constitutions, election laws, or other legal mandates / establishments. There are a number of different types of electoral systems. First, the plurality voting system is one where the candidate who gets the most votes, wins. In this system, there is no requirement to attain a majority, so this system can sometimes be called the first-past-the-post system. This system is the system used in the U.S., and it is the second most common election type for presidential elections and elections for legislative members around the world. Second, the majoritarian voting system is one where, as the name suggests, candidates must win a majority in order to win the election. If they do not win a majority, there needs to be a runoff election. Third, the proportional voting system is one where voting options reflect geographical or political divisions in the population to enable a proportional leadership when elected. For instance, if 10% of the population are members of Political Party A, then the country’s legislature will allow for 10% of its membership to reflect this. Finally, some countries employ mixed voting systems, which can combine use of any of the aforementioned election systems, using different systems for different types of elections, i.e. presidential versus legislative.

Political parties also play a very important role, not only in elections, but in how political agenda get accomplished in different countries. Recall, political parties are groups of people who are organized under shared values to get their candidates elected to office to exercise political authority. Political parties can exist as both a label and to indicate group leadership; as a label, individuals label themselves and their core values/priorities when voted and political parties can be used to indicate a group of leaders acting on behalf of the party. At this point, it is interesting to consider political parties in the context of U.S. democracy; American Founders didn’t plan for parties; in fact, they warned against them as deleterious. Edmund Burke’s Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770): parties are good. They protect the people from an abusive monarch or factions (with) in the government. Madison in Federalist 10: definition of faction: “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Political parties are not altogether helpful in democracies, but can be mitigated by means of an extended political sphere. In other words, if factions must exist, it is better to have too many than too few. That way, as President George Washington stated in his farewell address, myriad factions, and by extension multiple political parties, make it “less likely…that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.”

Political parties can lead to observably intense partisanship, measured quantitatively by the lack of compromise between, in the case of the United States, Republicans and Democrats. A prescient example of heavy partisanship now prevalent in US politics can be found in former President Ronald Reagan’s proverbial “11th Commandment” which posited “Republicans should never {publicly} criticize fellow Republicans”. Arguably, the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton and both impeachments of former president Donald Trump all ended with no political consequence. Specifically, while both Clinton and Trump were impeached in the House of Representatives along almost unanimous party lines, neither were convicted in the Senate in what were likewise near unanimous party-line votes. These examples illuminate both the extent to which the members of political parties are willing to pursue political consequences against the opposite party and the rarity of such consequences being applied on their own political party, regardless of the offense. One need to look no further than the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol building in Washington D.C. wherein the only 2 Republican members of the Congressional committee tasked with investigating 1/6/21, Liz Cheney and Adam Kitzinger were both officially censured by their own Republican Party.

There are three different ways in which Katz classifies political parties: number of parties competing; orientation -ideological/national vs. local/service; and internal unity. The number of parties depends upon the electoral formula and the number of deputies from each district. A large-district, proportional representation electoral system generally yields the greatest number of parties. The orientation depends upon the electoral formula. Generally, proportional representation systems yield parties with an ideological orientation. Internal unity also depends upon the given electoral formula. If there are intra-party preference votes (primaries), there is likely to be more internal disunity; particularly, there will be diffused leadership. If resources are so diffused that each candidate must build their own resources and following, then a fractionalized party is likely.