comp3 Flashcards
According to most political scientists there are 3 types of democracies (classified based on the type of government) :-
- Parliamentary
- Presidential
- Semi-presidential
A democracy is classified based on the relationship between the government, the legislature, and the president
- Whether the government responsible to the elected
legislature – the legislative majority has the constitutional power to remove the government from office without cause. A vote of no confidence - A democracy with legislative responsibility is semi-presidential if it has a popularly elected head of state who serves a fixed term in office. If it does not, it is parliamentary
Popularly elected
1) through voters casting ballots, or 2) ballots are cast to elect an assembly/electoral collage
Presidential democracy
Democracies where governments do not depend on a legislative majority to exist
Parliamentary democracy
Democracies in which the government depends on a legislative majority to exist and in which the head of state is not popularly elected for a fixed term
Semi-presidential
Democracies in which the government depends on a legislative majority to exist and in which the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term
Governments in Parliamentary Democracies
- The Government is made up of a prime minister and a cabinet. Australian government is an example
- Prime minister is the political chief executive and head of government
- Prime minister- “chancellor” in Germany, “prime minister” in the UK, “president” in Marshall Islands
- Cabinet – has ministers who head one of the government’s departments. Ministers have portfolios
- The doctrine of ministerial responsibility – term meaning the minister is held responsible for problems in their department
Ministers in parliamentary democracies are bound by the - Meaning that ministers may air their disagreement on policy at cabinet meetings, but they are bound by the collective decision. –
doctrine of collective cabinet responsibility.. Ministers who are unable to defend the policy publicly must resign
In parliamentary democracies the government must always –
enjoy the support of a legislative majority
When a government ( in some countries) must show –before it can take office it holds an investiture vote. This is to avoid -
that it has support, a vote of no confidence
Governments in a parliamentary system must have the support of a legislative majority even -
without having to show this in an investiture vote or a vote of no confidence
Formateur
A politician whose job is to form a government
Informateur
Someone with no political ambition, whose job is
to look at politically feasible coalitions and recommend people who would make good formateurs
There are two types of politicians
- “office seekers” – want to secure as many ministerial portfolios as possible. Interested in the benefit of office
- “policy seekers” – this politician wants the ministerial portfolios of the purpose of influencing public policy, to make a difference in how the country is run
Government formation process in parliamentary democracies can be complicated
* Government formation process varies. When a single party has majority of legislative seats, they typically
form the cabinet and decide on who from the party gets which portfolio. If many parties get legislative seats, it takes longer to form a cabinet. The decision must be made on which parties form the
government, how the portfolios are allocated to these parties, and what the coalition policy will be
Governments in Presidential Democracies
They are made up of the president and his cabinet
* The president is both the head of state and the political chief executive
Government Formation Process
- First - Legislative responsibility does not exist in a presidential democracy. Therefore, unlike parliamentary systems, presidential systems do not have to maintain legislative support to be in office
- Second – Unlike in parliamentary democracies, there is certainty on the identity of the formateur in presidential democracies. This is because the president is always the formeteur whether their party does well or not in legislative elections. This means the president appoints the cabinet
Third – Because the president is always the formateur, his party must be included in each cabinet despite the legislative size. This does not mean the president will exclude other parties, but that the cabinet must include the president’s party - Finally – The “reversion point” part of the presidential government is different from the parliamentary . A reversion point refers to what happens when a minority formateur fails to form a coalition. In a parliamentary system when a minority prime minister fails to obtain an implicit legislative majority causes the actors to “revert”- early election, caretaker government or new round of bargaining. In the presidential system, the president’s party simply rules alone ( without the support of the opposition parties)
Types of Presidential Cabinets
Parliamentary system-prime minister must appoint a cabinet that has the support of a majority. The cabinet parties in this system do not have to control a majority of legislative seats themselves, they could get support from opposition parties on policy grounds
- This can be true for presidential systems too. Some opposition parties will support the government without receiving cabinet posts. However, some minority governments will rule out this type of
support. This type of government is not possible in the
parliamentary system because of legislative responsibility
This suggests that with all things being equal, minority
governments –
are more likely in presidential systems than they are in parliamentary systems. This is supported by empirical evidence
Governments in Semi-Presidential
Democracies
-n a semi-presidential democracy, the government depends on the legislature to stay in power, and the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term. In Eastern Europe, many countries adopted this form of democracy after their democratic transitions in the 1980s and 1990s. Semi-presidential democracies are also common in Africa
* The government is made up of the prime minister and their cabinet. The president is not part of the government itself but of the executive ( prime minister, cabinet and president). The
president (influence over foreign policy) and prime minister (influence over domestic policy) are involved in the day to day running of the state
Semi-presidential democracies where there is legislative responsibility and presidential responsibility are referred to as
president-parliamentary systems
Semi-presidential democracies in which the president cannot remove the government are known as a -
premier-presidential
systems
semi-presidential institutional arrangements are not a safe choice for new democracies
