Parlament Vs Presidential Systems

Parliamentary vs Presidential systems

Oyinlola Akinlosotu

Political science 102

Fall 2017

Parliamentary vs Presidential systems

When America was first created the founding fathers did not want a system like Great Britain at all; they believed that a presidential system would be better for the new country. Although presidential systems had been around for a year before America’s founding fathers went about setting up the system. Some countries preferred the best of both worlds and have a hybrid system set up where it has some functions of a presidential and parliamentary system. There is no one single identical presidential or parliamentary system. This makes it hard to say one system works for all. But based on my research between presidential and parliamentary systems, parliamentary systems are beyond a shadow of a doubt more democratic. While reading this, you will learn how the two systems work and the differences between parliamentary and presidential systems. The two countries in this paper that are referenced is Germany and Nigeria.

With regards to parliamentary systems, the three sections are the Executive Power, the Parliament of representatives, and the Supreme Court. Different Parliaments have different numbers, but Germany has 709 members in their parliament. The Cabinet or The House of Commons holds people who were elected into their positions. In the Cabinet  laws and policies are proposed, existing laws are amended, and the government's work is criticized. Each member represents a constituency in the country they are serving. These elected officials are usually either connected to a political party or they are independents. They are elected by voters who are in the area where they would like to represent. The leader of whichever party that had the most members elected in the general election becomes the prime minister. In turn, the Prime minister selects 20 senior ministers to help coordinate the different departments in the government. The parties that have no power in the government are called “the opposition.” The opposition usually questions proposed laws and policy. The speaker facilitates the discussions when in session. The House of Lords is made up of what some would call life peers, bishops, and hereditary peers. These are useful for their expertise on certain issues. The House of Lords shares the job of creating and shaping laws. Once laws make it through to Parliament they must be signed off by the monarch.^[1] The Prime Ministers has the power to have parliaments disbanded which would force a new election.

In most presidential governments the election for president is every 4 years. A presidential government is broken up into 3 branches: legislative, judicial and executive branch. Within the legislative, the two branches are the house of representatives and the senate. The executive is the president who is also known as commander in chief. The judicial branch is the supreme court.  This system is democratic, and elections for both the executive and legislative branch are held at separate time. This means that there is no control as to which party controls the branches. This means that the executive branch could be held by one party and the legislature could be a majority of that same party but because of reflections, during the term of the executive, the legislative branch could be turned over to the opposing party.  The judicial branch is not a branch that one could be elected into. The judges in the supreme court must be suggested by the executive branch and then confirmed by the legislative branch. Those in the supreme court serve for life. Their job is to check the legislative branch and or the executive branch to see if what they are doing is constitutional. Any decision made by the supreme court is final. The supreme court can override and control the power that both the legislative and executive branch has.^[2] All branches are held accountable for checks and balances; this is to make sure that no one branch or person has too much power. Most presidential systems make it so the president is elected by popular vote. But systems use a more indirect election devices to elect the executive branch, for example, America with the electoral college. In case of an unpopular president, the process of impeaching a president is a long process that requires a case against the president. There must be a trial conviction then comes the punishment which means the impeachment or getting kicked out of office. Impeachment does not mean you are kicked out of office but when one gets to the point of being kicked out of office, then they have lost support from not only the opposing party but from their own party too. The impeachment process must start in the house of representative’s office, and can be brought up by any member, but it first must get the majority vote from the house judiciary committee. If passed the motion goes to the Senate and the Senate acts as a jury, and if a majority of the Senate votes yes then the president is officially impeached. Although it doesn't mean he or she is kicked out of office, that wouldn't occur until s majority of the Senate votes for the president to be kicked out.^[3] In a presidential system, it is hard to pinpoint someone accountable for things not happening because of the separation of power. Long story short, one may say it's easier to get put into office than to get kicked out.