4.3: Systems of Democracy

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Dino Bozonelos, Julia Wendt, Charlotte Lee, Jessica Scarffe, Masahiro Omae, Josh Franco, Byran Martin, & Stefan Veldhuis
Victor Valley College, Berkeley City College, Allan Hancock College, San Diego City College, Cuyamaca College, Houston Community College, and Long Beach City College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

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Learning Objectives

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

Identify the defining characteristics of Presidential, Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Systems.
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages to each of these systems.

Introduction

Within democracy, there are three types of systems which may be present, including: the presidential, the parliamentary and the semi-presidential systems. Each of these systems were designed to fit the context and cultures of their democratic systems, and each has their share of advantages and disadvantages, discussed below.

The presidential system of government, sometimes called a single executive system, is one where the head of government is a president who leads the executive branch of government. The executive branch of government, in this system, is separate and distinct from the legislative branch, to ensure a separation of powers.In countries with presidential systems, the president is the chief executive and is elected into their role. The president, in this system, is not dependent upon the legislature for attaining its position. Presidential Systems like the United States can encounter the problem of the “personalization of power” where vendibility, cronyism and even deinstitutionalization can occur. Parliamentary systems, on the other hand, typically have heads of government and heads of state that are not elected directly. Indeed, parliamentary systems - systems of government wherein the ministers of the executive branch are drawn from the legislature and are accountable to that body - are not so often held captive by personality-driven heads of state as are presidential systems. Thus, certain political personalities such as former president Trump are necessarily more reliant on the personalization of power per se.

In contrast to the presidential system, the parliamentary system, sometimes called parliamentary democracy, is one where the chief executive, usually a Prime Minister, attains their role through election by the legislature. Therefore, in this scenario, Prime Ministers must have the support of the legislature in order to take their office, and they can be pulled at any time by the legislature, should the legislature choose to change leadership. The legislature can vote “no confidence” in the Prime Minister. This model is dynamic and flexible and can respond quickly to lack of consensus. Parliamentary systems commonly have minimum winning coalitions, minimum sized cabinets, oversized minority coalitions that are fragmented requiring constant negotiation within their multiparty system in which there is typically a runoff election between the top two candidates.

Finally, the semi-presidential system, sometimes called the dual executive system, is one where a country has both a president and a prime minister and cabinet. The president, in this scenario, comprises the executive branch and needs to be elected by the population, whereas the Prime Minister is elected through the legislature and, with their cabinets, help perform the functions of the legislative branch.

Table 4.3.1: Advantages & Disadvantages of Presidential, Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Systems


	Presidential System	Parliamentary System	Semi-Presidential System
Advantages	Fixed term Popularly elected Unipersonal leadership	Head of government is dependent on legislative approval Easier to remove the head of government by legislative will Collective leadership is present (with)in cabinet	For its parliamentary functions, Parliament has the ability to remove an unpopular prime minister, especially if the prime minister and the president are not working cooperatively Division of work between prime minister and the president decreases the amount of bureaucracy.
Disadvantages	Deadlock within executive branch of government Temporal rigidity, fixed term, can’t get them out easily (has never happened in US history) Winner-take-all is an exclusive form of representative government, thus “third parties” are left with very little chance at victory	Instability in Head of Government Head of Government is not elected directly by the people No separation of powers per se between Head of government and Legislative body	Tends to favor the president, not the prime minister Confusion over who is responsible for what Potentially inefficient or ineffective legislative process

Each of these systems have potential pros and cons. The presidential system may be considered ideal in some circumstances because the chief executive has fixed terms of office. Fixed terms can produce stability and enable voters to understand the timelines of leadership. At the same time, the fixed term may be a disadvantage if there is an unpopular president, but no reasonable way to pull the president from their role. To remove a president from office, for instance, in the U.S., the legislature would have to follow the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which describes and lays out the process for removing a president from power. This process is far more cumbersome than parliamentary systems which can remove a prime minister from power at any time, and for any reason, by getting majority consensus among the legislators. The nature of the prime minister role within a parliamentary system could also simultaneously be considered both a pro and a con. It can be to the advantage of the legislative branch to remove a prime minister if they are unpopular and/or not completing their political agenda. At the same time, changes in leadership can cause instability and uncertainty, which could be seen as a disadvantage. Finally, the semi-presidential system has some unique advantages and disadvantages. It could be seen as an advantage to have a president, in charge of head of government activities, and a prime minister, in charge of head of state activities. Here, there is a division of labor which can decrease the level of bureaucracy in both the executive and legislative branches. At the same time, semi-presidential systems can be non-ideal in that roles can be confused, and the president tends to have the advantage over a prime minister because the former has fixed terms while the latter can be pulled from office at any time. Overall, the system of government chosen is designed to fit the culture and context of the country’s democracy, and the characteristics of each of these systems can be seen as advantages or disadvantages depending on the unique circumstances.