¶ … Politics
Although it is not perfect, the presidential system of government, as typified by the United States (U.S.) is the best system of government ever conceived. By creating a system where the public can remove administrations, without changing the legal basis for government, democracy aims at reducing political uncertainty and instability, and assuring citizens that however much they may disagree with present policies, they will be given a regular chance to change those who are in power, or change policies with which they disagree. This is preferable to a system where political change takes place through violence. Democracies are also more peaceful. Democratic nations do not aggressively attack their neighbors; they seek to resolve differences peacefully. The market forces become the overriding concern in a democratic state. "Immanuel Kant, the original proponent of the democratic peace, contended that in democracies, those who pay for wars -- that is, the public -- make the decisions, so they are understandably cautious."
A presidential system, or a congressional system, is a system of government of a republic where the executive branch is elected separately from the legislative. The defining characteristic of a presidential government is how the executive is elected, but in nearly all presidential systems the president is both head of state and head of government, and has a fixed term of office. Elections are held at scheduled times, and cannot be triggered by a vote of confidence or other such parliamentary procedures. The executive branch is unipersonal. Members of the cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president and must carry our the president's policies. "The government which is elected by the democratic procedures becomes the absolutely legitimate government. If legitimacy is strong, then it becomes culturally taboo to overthrow it. It even becomes taboo not to see it as 'our government.' Because U.S. citizens think this way, the United States is politically stable."
There are also a few countries - the Czech Republic and South Africa being examples - which have powerful presidents who are elected by the legislature. These presidents are chosen in the same way as a prime minister, yet are both heads of state and heads of government. These executives are titled "president," yet are constitutionally identical to prime ministers. Some political scientists consider the conflation of head of state and head of government duties to be a problem of presidentialism because criticism of the president cum head of state is criticism of the state itself.
A president, by virtue of a fixed term, may provide more stability than a prime minister who can be dismissed at any time. Stability was virtue prized highly by the framers of the Constitution, as we see in the writings of James Madison in the Federalist Papers. "Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice."
A prime minister is usually chosen by a few individuals of the legislature, while a president is usually chosen by the people. According to supporters of the presidential system, a popularly elected leadership is inherently more democratic than a leadership chosen by a legislative body, even if the legislative body was itself elected. In some parliamentary systems though, such as Israel's, the party leader is chosen by the party's rank and file membership through primaries.
It is also claimed that the direct mandate of a president makes him or her more accountable. The reasoning behind this argument is that a prime minister is "shielded" from public opinion by the apparatus of state, being several steps removed. Despite the existence of the no confidence vote, in practice, it is extremely difficult to stop a prime minister or cabinet that has made its decision. To vote down the cabinet's legislation is to bring down a government and have new elections, a step few are willing to take. Hence, a no confidence vote in some parliamentary countries, like
Uvin and McFaul make sound arguments using political comparison as the key to their studies. Uvin uses evidence of all aspect of political life in his three case study countries, such as elections, the population, and the role of the military. He then takes his case studies, compares them, and finds the pattern that links them all to each other. Once the pattern is identified, he illustrates how this pattern can be looked at in much
Politics Notions of Modern Democracy Is Democracy just a simple definition of 'majority rules?' In reality, it's a much more complicated concept. Democracy' is a word that is often bandied about as a world with an inherently positive meaning in the public political discourse of America as well as other Western (as well as some non-Western) nations. But what constitutes a democratic political system, much less democratic political values often varies from
Israeli-Palestinian Situation In the last decade or so, a sequence of regional changes has created a window of opportunity for inclusively for the Middle East peacemaking. The regional balance of power usually has shifted in the last ten or fifteen years in Israel's favor. The fact is that Israel has become more powerful and has given rise to a new Israeli that showed his eagerness to negotiate and to concede in
From the perspective offered by such a theoretical background, further research is easier to achieve, without having to redo the research with data already available. Another advantage for using typologies is the fact that they are a useful background for analysis not in the sense of being used as tools, as mentioned before, but as actual sources of practical information. For instance, the term democracy is used by Plato in
Politics has never reached the importance in people's daily lives as it has any time before in history. In today's world, the globalization trend has made all of our lives interconnect whether we are aware of these connections or not. Furthermore, our world population has become so large that the competition for natural resources, especially non-renewable ones, has become an intense rivalry among many different nations and even some of
Politics - Country Case Study - Brazil Brazil's success during its early years is primarily owed to the fact that colonists were attracted by its potential and New World settlement promises meant to influence individuals into leaving their home in favor of a rich and fertile territory. In spite of the fact that the majority of Brazilians during the late nineteenth century consisted of African-Americans, the country's public rapidly diversified
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now