The world is a collection of nations that are in need of a fair system that allows its people to effectively justify and elect their leaders to govern their nation. It is for this reason that democratic systems are represented and implemented across the world. Democracy can be defined as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Two of the more predominant democratic systems that exist in our world today are parliamentary and presidential systems. Both of these democratic systems share similar benefits in that both systems have the supreme power entrusted by the people, but also there are many critiques that could be brought against presidential and parliamentary systems. Presidential and parliamentary systems are both democratic in nature; however both of these systems have benefits and flaws, but ultimately presidential systems are more democratic.
The parliamentary system is combined of two basic components: the prime minster and their cabinet, plus the elected legislature. The legislature is responsible for electing and removing the prime minister from office. However, there is also a division of power between the head of government and the head of state. The head of government (the prime minister) holds a majority of the power compared to the head of state (O’Neil, 2011, p. 140). The head of state can be elected by the public’s vote, indirectly through the power of the legislature, or a monarch that has inherited the thrown. Although the head of state has some power, it is not very much at all (O’Neil, 2011, p. 141). They may hold some reserve power such as the ability to reject certain legislature or forward legislature to the constitutional court, but these backup powers are infrequently brought about.
In today’s world, the presidential democracy is a rare occurrence with the United States and Latin American countries holding a majority of the presidential democracies. A presidential democracy is comprised of a president that is elected directly through a national public vote. In a presidential system, the president is basically both the head of state and the head of government unlike the parliamentary system (O’Neil, 2011, p. 142). In contrast to the parliamentary system, the presidential system’s legislature is also elected for a fixed term. Since the president and the legislature are elected for fixed terms, one rarely sees the election dates changed or altered for both branches of government (O’Neil, 2011, p. 143). In addition, the president and the legislature are not permitted to remove each other from office that we sometimes see in a parliamentary system with called elections from the prime minister or votes of confidence from the legislature. Therefore, this creates for a greater separation of powers for presidential systems compared to parliamentary systems. Also, the president has the ultimate power to elect his or her cabinet and more likely than not, those cabinet members also hold seats in the legislative body.
The parliamentary system is advantageous in many different ways. One of the benefits of the parliamentary system is that the prime minister has confidence that he or she can get legislation passed in an orderly fashion (O’Neil, 2011, p. 145). All it really takes to pass legislation in a parliamentary system is a majority vote within the legislature (Shively, 2008, p. 327). This is beneficial because sometimes legislation can linger in presidential systems due the president’s power in the presidential system to veto the legislation that is trying to be passed. Another advantage of the parliamentary system is that the guidelines of responsibility for new policy making are clear and in order. The parties in the parliamentary hold pretty strong to their word once in office because there is nothing preventing from accomplishing what they said they wanted to do if elected (Shively, 2008, p. 328). This is advantageous due to the fact that sometimes in the presidential system the blame cannot be pinpointed solely on the legislature, but rather the Supreme Court and president.
In contrast, the parliamentary does have its drawbacks. The pubic does not hold the power to select the prime minister and they may end up feeling like they have lesser control than the executive branch of government (O’Neil, 2011, p. 145). Another disadvantage of the parliamentary system is that a minority legislative measure has a very small chance of actually garnering support to make a policy into law (Shively, 2008, p. 328). Unlike in the parliamentary system, a bare majority might have a chance in a presidential system due to the fact that the president has the power to veto. Furthermore, another drawback that one might encounter with a parliamentary system is that it may produce an unbalanced government (Shively, 2008 p. 328). If certain party members disagree for a continued amount of time, it could take the legislature a far lot longer to pass legislative policy into law. As a result, the strength of the relationships within the party sometimes finds it difficult to come together in a coalition.
Presidential systems also find a way to be advantageous in many different ways compared to parliamentary systems. One advantage of the presidential system is that the president in power is directly elected through a national public vote. As a result, a nation’s population feels that they have more power since they are the ones that voted and chose to elect that certain president. Since so much of the people’s power is vested in electing the president, the president is therefore shot into a position of policy leadership (Shively, 2008, p. 344). Another advantage of the presidential system is a greater sense of checks and balances. For example, the legislative body of the a presidential system is tasked with putting together a law, but the legislature then waits for the president to put that motion forward. Thus, a greater system of checks and balances is achieved.
Although the presidential system has benefits, it most certainly contains some drawbacks as well. Both the president and legislature may be controlled by different parties that could potentially create a division amongst the government bodies (O’Neil, 2011, p. 145). For instance, the president could represent the Republican Party and a majority of the elected legislature in place could be democratic, thus creating a division of parties within the government. Another disadvantage concerning presidential systems is that presidential systems do not make it clear on the responsibilities of policy (Shively, 2008, p. 345). This makes it extremely difficult for voters to determine who has the responsibility on a policy. In turn, this weakness in responsibility can stem into a weakness with public officials to where they use their power in irresponsible manners.
Now that both the benefits and drawbacks have been discussed between presidential and parliamentary systems, it is evident that the presidential system is far more democratic. As illustrated above, democracy can be defined as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. In the presidential system, the national public directly elects their president. Democratic governments involve the whole population of a nation and thus by having a presidential system the people are going to feel like they have more power by being able to elect their leader (Shively, 2008, p. 345).
Furthermore, the president under a presidential system does not have to worry about immediate removal like the prime minister does in a parliamentary system. This allows the president to be decisive about their actions on policy without having to really worry about being removed from office anytime soon. As a result, this allows for more flexible decision-making and makes the presidential system far more stable.
In conclusion, the dominant forms of democracy that encompass our world today include both parliamentary and presidential systems. These systems pride themselves on being governed by the people. However, the structure and policy aspects that are incorporated between these two systems differ in many ways. Even though the presidential and parliamentary systems are both democratic, the presidential system takes the edge on being more democratic than the parliamentary system. A democratic government is by the people and for the people. In a presidential system, the nation’s populace directly elects the president who is the head of state and government. If the population does not directly elect a nation’s most powerful individual then it makes it difficult to say that system is more democratic than a presidential system.
Works Cited
O'Neil, P. (2011). Essentials of comparative politics. (4 ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. DOI:
www.wwnorton.comShively, W. P. (2008). Power and choice: An introduction to political science. (11 ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. DOI:
www.mcgraw-hill.com
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