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Political Systems Comparison Research Paper
Structurally, this country has a presidential political system in place. The system consists of three branches that share the powers of law-making, execution, and adjudication. This distribution of powers keeps balance within the government because each branch has clear roles and one leader of the whole country. As a result, citizens can see where they disagree with political action and make changes right away through the direct election offered by a presidential system.
Parliamentary and semi-presidential systems do not offer those same abilities to citizens since government powers are blurred together, and elections are indirect. In a parliamentary system, citizens vote for their legislative representatives but not the executive representative because that power is reserved for the legislative branch. This means citizens have only one opportunity to vote for representation in the whole government.
A significant problem because citizens will not be able to make immediate changes to the executive role if they feel that an individual is not representing the country as a whole. The other problem is that the appointed head of government has less power in a parliamentary system. Executive and legislative powers are blurred together because the head of government must stay in line with the desires of the legislative branch; otherwise, the legislative representative can vote to have the executive leader removed.
This chance to be removed from office is suppressing the powers of the executive leader and giving the power to the legislative branch. With this type of system in place, there is little to no balance, and citizens have a smaller voice in who represents them, which is why this political system was ruled out. Citizens need to have a voice in who represents them while there is also a balance between every branch.
A similar dilemma occurs in semi-presidential systems. The executive branch is divided into two roles in this type of government. One role is the citizen-elected head of state with symbolic and ceremonial powers. At the same time, another individual is the head of government who handles the political action. Citizens also still vote for legislative representatives. In other words, the head of state has little or no political power as they are just the face of the country.
The only role of the head of state is to appoint the head of government who handles all other executive duties. Interestingly enough, the head of government is actually a legislative branch member and must follow suit with those representatives. Otherwise, the legislative representatives can remove the head of government from office.
This again creates the problem that one branch has too much power in government, which means if the wrong group of people took office, the country could fall into a democratic breakdown allowing an authoritarian regime to take over. Not only that, but citizens are once again losing a voice in government representatives since they do not elect who is the head of government.
Once again, blurred powers between branches and a smaller voice for citizens are why a semi-presidential system is not being used for my country. The clear separation of powers and opportunities for citizens to vote for their representatives marks a presidential system the best option for my country.
The first branch of government is the executive branch consisting of one elected individual as the president. Being the president in this country means the elected individual is the head of state and government. As the head of government, the president has political responsibilities of signing, vetoing, and enforcing laws. Being the head of state means the president is the national representative for the country.
As the national representative, the president will work with foreign leaders on world issues while also working to bring the country together. Each role is a vital part of the executive branch and is combined into one position, so citizens have a clear leader. Citizens will know who is making all executive actions and make necessary changes to this branch during elections. This is opposed to splitting the executive powers up amongst two people causing citizens to wonder who is the leader.
Not only that but having the powers split into two can cause more problems because one role affects the other role negatively. For example, the head of state could be working on a peace agreement while the head of government could move troops into that country.
Another possibility is that the head of state disagrees with the head of government’s actions and encourages citizens not to follow the new laws or actions. Two leaders with separate powers bring much confusion to citizens and split the power in the executive branch. Therefore, the executive branch is one elected individual serving as the state and government head.
