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History of Democracy
The evolution of democracy
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Monarchy v/s Presidency There are several forms of state governance in politics. These systems would have hold on the basic governmental powers like taxation, police power and power of eminent domain. Although there are several forms, the ones that cover its extremes would be Monarchy and Presidency. Monarchy is a form of government where sovereignty is nominally embodied in a single individual. It can be a king, queen or an Emperor entitled to have total power of the country. Whereas Presidency which is often termed as democracy, is the form of government made by the people to serve the people. Notably, there are significant differences and similarities in the structure of the government, the process and the output. In detail, it starts …show more content…
Monarchy has been here since antiquity. Comparatively, Presidential form of government can be called as a newer form of government. It’s said to have existed since 500 BC but it wasn’t in the exact form as it is now. Presidential form of govt. has seen radical changes in their ideas and concepts. The method of selection of the Monarch doesn’t involve voting or opinion of the general public in most of the cases. In contrast, democracy is built on the concept that the ruler would be a representative of the people. Democracy’s widely known definition says ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. The core concept of Democracy lies in involving the common people in framing the rules and regulations of the country, taking the country forward and the country’s prosperity. In monarchy, the crown is passed to the next generation as the successor. It usually is the children of the existing ruler who inherits the power and holds the power until his death or abdication. The rule is more like a family affair. When it comes to framing the laws, the king makes the law in Monarchy but the people and government together makes the law in Democracy. This can be noted as a drawback of Monarchy since the laws for the people are in the hands of the ruler
A republic can be defined as “A state in which the head of government is not a monarch or
With a dictionary definition (cited above), there is little end result between all definitions besides democracy. monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, tyranny all translate to few people or individual(s) ruling with power. Indeed, aristocracy and oligarchy are synonymous within this definition, as well as monarchy, aristocracy, and tyranny. The former being ruled by groups while the latter in definition are ruled by individuals. Not much difference.
Discussions of which constitutional form of government best serves the growing number of democratic nation’s are in constant debate all over the world. In the essay “The Perils of Presidentialism”, political scientist, Juan Linz compares the parliamentary system with presidential democracies. As the title of Linz’s essay implies, he sees Presidentialism as potentially dangerous and sites fixed terms, the zero-sum game and legitimacy issues to support his theory. According to Linz, the parliamentary system is the superior form of democratic government because Prime Minister cannot appeal to the people without going through the Parliament creating a more cohesive form of government. By contrast, a
The way that a country is controlled by the government depends on the relationship between the legislative and executive authority. Most democratic nations, today, generally use one of two governmental systems, either a parliamentary system or a presidential system. Today most of Europe prefers to use a parliamentary system, whereas the presidential form of government is preferred in places such as South Korea, South America and the United States. The differences between these two governmental systems are not obvious at first, but there are some key differences. However, neither one of them is necessarily superior to the other.
Although there are many different forms of democracy, in a true democracy the power is in the hands of the people. In a representative democracy the nations “restrict popular decision making to electing or appointing officials who make public policy” (Text, 4). According to this definition, democracy is a form of government in which power and responsibility reside with those who have been appointed to make decisions for the good of the whole.
Within parliamentary systems, the government i.e. the legislature consist of the political party with the most popularly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) in the main legislative parliament e.g. the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister is appointed by the party to lead as the executive decision-maker, and the legislature work to support and carry out their will (Fish, 2006). In presidential systems, the President is directly elected with the support of their political party, with the legislative being separately elected and, in the case of the United States, being made up of representatives from different states (BIIP, 2004). This essay will provide examples to suggest that Presidents are generally more powerful than Prime Ministers. As two of the oldest forms of parliamentary and presidential governments (Mainwaring and Shugart, 1997), the United Kingdom and the United States will be the main focus of this essay, but other parliamentary and presidential countries will be mentioned.
Firstly there is the presidential system. There are many characteristics to a presidential system. The first main part of a presidential system is how the executive is elected. The executive is a president who is elected to a fixed term. Also a president is not only head of state, but is head of government. The president is the sole executive of the government. Even though there is a cabinet in a presidential system it does not have the power it does in a parliamentary system. The cabinet is chosen by the president instead of chosen by the parliament. A president has to follow a constitution rather than following history. The president actually has a large part in the government’s decisions. A big advantage to political scientists of the presidential system is that there is a separation of powers. The legislative branch being separate from the executive branch lets one another keep checks and balances on each other. This assures that no one branch will take over or attempt to take over the government. Another advantage of a presidential system is that the population elects the chief executive and the legislative branch. By winning a popular vote shows that most of a country is backing the executive which does not seem to cause revolution. The president can not dissolve an assembly as one can in a parliamentary system. Also in a presidential system there is the judicial branch, which is the court system. The judicial branch is important because it helps uphold the constitution. One of the last advantages of a presidential system is that there is more stability because a president is elected to a fixed term, where as in a parliamentary system a prime minister can be ousted at any time. A presidential system is not perfect, but it has it’s high and low points.
plays a large role in this firm, as I will have to ask questions by
One of the contemporary definitions of democracy today is as follows: “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives; Rule by the majority” (“Democracy” Def.1,4). Democracy, as a form of government, was a radical idea when it manifested; many governments in the early history of the world were totalitarian or tyrannical in nature, due to overarching beliefs that the strong ruled over the weak.
This essay will go step by step analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of presidential systems. Examples of countries will be concluded to each point. For every argument I tried to find a An interesting fact is, that every advantage can be seen from another point of view and I will like to show this in my essay.
Every country differs in their preference of political system to govern their countries. For democratic countries, two possible choices of governing are the presidential system and the parliamentary system. Since both the presidential and the parliamentary systems have their own strengths and weaknesses, many scholars have examined these two forms of government, and debate on which political system is more successful in governance. In this paper, I will first provide a detailed analysis of both the parliamentary and the presidential system. I will also evaluate each system’s strengths and weaknesses, addressing any differences as well as any commonalities. Finally, I will conclude by using historical examples to analyze and support the presidential system, which would be a more desirable system for a democratic government.
Constitutional monarchy can be described as a form of government in which a monarch acts as the head of state but functions within the parameters or guidelines of a written and/or unwritten constitution. Although the government may function officially in the monarch’s name, the monarch does not set public policies or choose the political leaders. Constitutional monarchy therefore differs from absolute monarchy where the monarch controls political decision making without being restricted by constitutional constraints. Consequently, a constitutional monarch has often been defined as a sovereign who reigns but does not rule. Constitutional monarchies have also been called limited monarchies, crowned republics or parliamentary monarchies.
Democracies are often classified according to the form of government that they have, which are Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential systems. In Presidential systems there is a division of powers, such as Judicial, Legislative, and Executive. These three powers or branches are dependent on each other. The President in a Presidential system is the Head of State and also the Head of Government. Some advantages of a Presidential system would be constancy and strength. A set term presidency is more stable than a prime minister who can be dismissed at any time. A prime minister is only in office for as long as he has the support of his own party, he can be dismissed without reference to the voters. Another advantage would be direct consent where in a Presidential system; the president is often elected directly by the people. A major disadvantage to Presidential systems would be that the separation of powers in the presidential form of governance shows an incomplete level of responsibility and the legislature and executive branches end up blaming each other. An example of a Presidential system is the United States along with most of Latin America, many African countries, and some Asian countries.
The last criterion on the differences between these two systems is the checks and balances between the two systems. The presidential system winner-takes-all politics makes politics a zero-sum game where the fixed mandate identifies losers and winners for the entire period. There is no moderating power involved and the presidents avoid coalitions with opponents because it could weaken them. The president has unlimited independent power, which they can appeal directly to the people and might think he/she represents the society as a whole even if he/she can be elected by a minority of people, which is the heavy reliance on personal qualities.
The foundation of the modern political system was laid in the times when the world was strangled in slavery. In those moments, enlightened minds in Greek came up with the new system that was there to remain for the next thousands of years. This system, now known as democracy, is a form of government in which supreme power is vested to the people themselves. People have the right to elect their leaders directly or indirectly through a scheme of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. A new democratic government is usually established after every 4-5 years, and it is trusted with the responsibility to cater to the needs of all the people irrespective of the fact that they voted for them or not. Although the minorities may not be very pleased with the idea of democracy, however, a democratic government is certainly the best because it establishes social equality among people, reduces the conflicts in the state to a minimum, gives the chance to vote repeatedly, and creates patriotism.