Types of Democratic Governmental Systems: Presidencial and Parliamentary Systems

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For many years, politicians have argued about the preferences of two types of democratic governmental systems, presidential systems and parliamentary systems. Firstly this paper will give a brief theoretical background and then analyse the merits and demerits of both systems, and will conclude that the presidential system functions as a more effective and desirable governmental system. Political researchers such as Juan Linz, Arend Lijphart, Stephan Haggard, and Matthew McCubbins, have argued that parliamentary systems are more effective, and they lead to a more stable democracy. But political scholars such as Matthew Shugart, Scott Mainwaring, Bradford Wilson, and Peter Schramm disagree and have argued for the superiority of the presidential system. But there is no consensus of which system is better. I think firstly it is important to understand the theory behind all these debates.
Theoretical background
Parliamentarism and presidentialism are commonly, and correctly, set in opposition as distinguishable systems of governance that exhibit distinguishable structural features .Lijphart outlines three main differences between presidential and parliamentary systems: a) in parliamentary systems the head of government requires the confidence of the legislature in order to stay in power, while in a presidential system the President remains in power for a fixed period of time (four years); b) in a presidential system, the electorate votes directly for the President, while in a parliamentary system leaders are selected by the party; and c) in a parliamentary system the Prime Minister as well as his cabinet make up the executive, in a presidential system, the President alone is a one-person executive.

Comparative analysis of parliamen...

... middle of paper ...

...ntary system is more effective for the states which is ethnically, racially, or ideologically divided into many parts, so in this system of government, parliament is so colorful. But to me it creates a messy situation and also decreases the efficiency for enacting laws, because members have different ideology which leads to long discussions. This colourful situation causes flexibility and instability of the parliament. As executive has no power to make opposite effect to the legislative, the despotism can be established.
Presidential system is more stabile in comparison with the parliamentary form government. Because president is elected directly by the people and his tenure of office is expressed in the constitution. But in parliamentary government can be terminated with the mechanism of non-confidence by the parliament and this leads to an instable situation.

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