Political Parties and Democracy
A central claim of democratic theory is that democracy induces governments to be responsive to the preferences of the people. Political parties serve to organize politics in almost every modern democracy in the world (in both presidential and parliamentary systems). Some observers claim that the parties are what induce democracies to be responsive. In this essay, the author will show this point of democracy being dependent upon the buildup of democratic expression through the buildup and maintenance of organic party organizations in both presidential and parliamentary systems in democracies worldwide. This analysis excludes ethnic parties which infect the systems with instability. Rather, we will see how other institutions can be harnessed to channel these energies in more profitable directions.
Brief Outline of Sources on Best System Mix for Political Stability-
The stability of any presidential system is that the candidates participate in the races in the multi-party systems that produce true coalitions consisting of grass roots political groups. A parliamentary system's stability describes that it has had a superior historical performance. This is especially true in societies with political cleavages and multiple party systems. The continuity of a political party is when it is in power and there it has expression in the duration of stable political coalitions between the political parties.
The articles below point out the adaptability that exists between the two political (presidential and parliamentary) systems and how they differ significantly from each other. The presidential system features a fixed term in political office that does not allow for some political adjustments to require some subsequent events. In this system, there is no democratic principle existing to solve disputes easily between executive and legislative branches. There is also less inclination to engage in consensus building because compromises look negative to others across the aisle. In parliamentary systems, the adaptability for the system is that the cabinet crises are most easily solved. Mainwaring shows that the most stable of these is found in the Chilean system which together successfully combines the parliamentary and presidential systems together (Mainwaring, 1990, 1) / This is also the case with the work of Valenzuela and Scully who point out the successful fusion of the presidential and multi-party systems in Chile (Valenzuela and Scully 1997, 511).
The last criterion about the major differences between these two democratic systems are the checks and balances between them. The presidential system, on the other hand is a winner-takes-all politics zero-sum game where the fixed mandate identifies losers and winners for the entire political system. There is no moderating power involved and presidents avoid coalitions with opponents because it could weaken them. A president has unlimited independent power in that they can appeal directly to the people. Because of this, they have a mandate that he/she represents the society as a whole even if he/she can be elected by only a minority of the people, hence the heavy reliance on personal qualities. On the other hand, the checks and balances of the parliamentary system is that a prime minister is a part of a larger political party body and is more on an equal foot with ministers in the government. In both types of systems, parties can aid in stabilization overall by giving voice to different ideological strands of society (Lijphart 1969, 208).
This can is also be seen to be the case in the application of the work of Robert Putnam more widely to systems such as Italy's where good government builds upon the social capital it has built up in the party system through public participation (Boix and Posner 1996, 1).
Main Body-Presidential Systems vs. Parliamentary Systems
Pro Arguments-Section 1-
Again, we will be comparing the two systems side by side. Anderson and Guillory showed that the nature representative democratic institutions (based on Lijphart's consensus-majority index of democracies) mediates the relationship between the person's status as part of a political minority or majority and his or her satisfaction with the way the system works based upon majority rule (Anderson, and Guillory 1997, 66).
In presidential systems, party discipline is weaker and the local interests are better represented. This is the case in Spain where two major political parties have ruled the country following the rise of democracy after dictator Francisco Franco's death (Chhibber and Torcal 1997, pp. 27-28).
In many presidential democracies, regimes have problems due to new democracies have low levels of legitimacy due to their newness. Therefore, they have to be cautious when presenting their ideas to their people. They must supply the change that they promise. In this way, they need to "put their best foot forward." As such, there is a great emphasis upon the inaugural address of the presidential...
Democracy / Liberty Is direct democracy desirable and/or possible today? Is direct democracy desirable and/or possible today? The question is addressed first theoretically, with reference to Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, which actually categorizes direct democracy as one of the corruptions into which a democratic system can descend, by an insistence on too much egalitarianism. Direct democracy is considered as an ideal, which is desirable insofar as it offers a critique of
The fact is, people vote outside of their party regularly. Consider the Reagan Democrats or the Clinton Republicans, who crossed party lines to support presidential candidates. Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, has been repeatedly re-elected in New York, one of America's most liberal states, and Michael Bloomberg has twice been elected mayor of New York City, one of the country's most liberal cities. These types of scenarios play out at
Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles about the United States Constitution. These are a series of eighty-five letters written to newspapers in 1787-1788 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, urging ratification of the Constitution (Wills, 1981). For many years, historians, jurists, and political scientists share a general consensus that The Federalist is the most important work of political philosophy and pragmatic government ever written in
Democracy in U.S. And Scotland Democracy in the United States Different countries with widely disparate forms of government all lay claim to being a democracy. Many European parliamentary-style governments, for example, call themselves democracies. In contrast, more centralized, presidential governments claim to be democracies as well. What these forms of government have in common, however, are key basic ideals. Democracy is a form of government that is based on aggregative concepts of a
At the same time, foreign direct investment capital increased exponentially in different areas. These factors allowed the banking sector become well capitalized with over $1 billion in reserves. (Lewis) (Dosmukhamedov) According to Baumol (2007) the basic models that were used to help create these transformations were a combination of big firm and enterprise centric capitalism. This is when private businesses were allowed to develop, produce and deliver various products to
Mass Media Promotes Democracy The journalistic side of the twentieth century can be defined as the struggle for democracy and an independent media against propaganda and subservience to the state. That struggle culminated during the first half of this century in the seizure of the means of communication by the demagogues of the 1930s and 1940s -- Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin -- and their Cold War reincarnation of the 1950s,
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