Parliamentary over Presidential

Ashley P. Maglaqui

Mr. Roy Agustin

English 12 Final Draft

19 March 2012

Parliamentary Over Presidential

Statement of Argument

This paper aims to convince its reader that the Philippines would benefit from abandoning its presidential system and adopting instead the parliamentary system, which is more efficient in government administration and less prone to corruption. It is, however, not in the scope of this paper to show that the implementation of a parliamentary system would be smooth-sailing and chaos-free, nor is it to show that corruption would be entirely eradicated, but instead it is to show the advantages of the parliamentary system over the current presidential system of the Philippines and how it could benefit the country and significantly reduce corruption.

Relevance of Argument

For years the Philippines has been called a "developing country" yet it has never actually reached a "developed" stage. Therefore, this paper will attempt to convince the reader that switching to a parliamentary system of government would ideally boost the progress and development of the Philippines by providing the country with a government that is united, and is therefore efficient in terms of administration and policy-making.

Parliamentary and Presidential Systems

In order to fully appreciate and understand the argument, there is a need to be knowledgeable of the different terms involved. The argument focuses mainly on the parliamentary system versus the presidential. The differences between the two systems are analyzed for their advantages and disadvantages throughout the paper. The term parliament generally refers to the legislature, or the law-making body of a government, more commonly known as the legislative branch of government. The head of government in a parliamentary system is called a variety of names, the most common being prime minister (Britain and the Commonwealth), and the others include premier (China), chancellor (Germany), and Taoiseach (Ireland). For the purpose of consistency, the term prime minister or PM will be used.

According to the book Parliament Versus Presidential Government, there are three fundamental distinctions between the two systems. The first would be that the prime minister and his or her cabinet, which consists of other ministers responsible for government policy, depend on the continuous support of the legislature, as shown by a majority vote of confidence. A no-confidence majority vote by parliament is a move for the dismissal of the current prime minister and his or her cabinet. On the other hand, the head of government in a presidential system is called a president, is elected for a fixed