Introduction
Within a democracy, there may be a presidential, parliamentary and/or semi-presidential system. Each system has been designed to fit the context and cultures of a specific democratic system. Likewise, each one has its share of advantages and disadvantages.
The presidential system, sometimes called a single executive system, is one where the head of government (the president) leads the executive branch of government. The executive branch of government is separate and distinct from the legislative branch, to ensure a separation of powers. The president is the chief executive and is elected into their role and is not dependent upon the legislature for attaining its position. Some systems, like the United States, can encounter the problem of the “personalization of power” where vendibility, cronyism, and even deinstitutionalization can occur. Typically, parliamentary systems have heads of government and heads of state that are not elected directly. Rather, the ministers of the executive branch are drawn from the legislature and are accountable to that body. So personality-driven heads of state are not as prominent.
In contrast, 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. Thus, the prime Ministers must have the support of the legislature in order to take and maintain their office. The legislature can choose to remove the executive from office if they feel a change of leadership is necessary through a vote of “no confidence”. This model is dynamic and flexible and can respond quickly to a lack of consensus. Parliamentary systems commonly have minimum-winning coalitions, minimum-sized cabinets, and oversized minority coalitions that are fragmented requiring constant negotiation within their multiparty system. A runoff election between the top two candidates is not unusual.
Finally, the semi-presidential system, sometimes called the dual executive system, is one where a country has both a president and a prime minister. The president 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, performs the functions of the legislative branch.
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 the prime minister and the president decreases the amount of bureaucracy.
|
| Disadvantages |
- Deadlock within the executive branch of government
- Temporal rigidity, fixed term, can’t remove them easily (example: 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 of victory
|
- Instability in head of government
- Head of government is not elected directly by the people
- No separation of powers per se between the head of government and the legislative body
|
- Tends to favor the president, not the prime minister
- Confusion over who is responsible for what
- Potentially inefficient or ineffective legislative process
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