Systems of Government

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the relative strengths and weaknesses of the parliamentary and presidential systems of government. It discusses various aspects of each form of government and compares their pros and cons. The paper specifically focuses on the issue of separation of power or the ability to limit the amount of power awarded to the head of state. The paper presents examples primarily from the United States and Canada.

From the Paper:

"Another important difference between Presidential and Parliamentary systems of government has to do with the relative ease with which heads of state may be dismissed. As we noted, in a Presidential system of government, presidents serve for a fixed period of time. In practice, this tends to mean that a president must be utterly outrageous in order to be ousted - and even then, he may sometimes manage to cling onto power. For example, Richard Nixon is the only American president who has ever been forced to resign. Other American presidents have managed to survive massive scandals. These include President John F. Kennedy, who survived a scandal over the untimely death by drug overdose of actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962; Bill Clinton, a married man and president who weathered the embarrassment of being publicly exposed as having had oral sex with an aide, Monica Lewinsky (Sands, 2000); and currently President Bush, who not only survived but was able to be elected for a second term of office, despite having lied to his people about the existence of so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (Roper, 2004)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Calabresi, Steven G. (2001). The virtues of presidential government: Why Professor Ackerman is wrong to prefer the German to the U.S. Constitution. Constitutional Commentary, 18(1): 51+.
• Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. (2003). Parliamentary system. Retrieved from web site: http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/public/learning_resources/glossary/2003/csharman-10_0312241107-537
• Deveau, Scott. (2006). Q&A - U.S. midterm elections. Globe and Mail Update. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061106.wmidtermback1106/BNStory/Front
• Kaminsky, Elijah Ben-Zion. (1997). On the comparison of presidential and parliamentary governments. Presidential Studies Quarterly 27(2): 221+.
• Lijphart, Arend (ed). (1992). Parliamentary versus Presidential Government. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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