Are Prime Ministers or Presidents Generally More Powerful?

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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.

Power Separation
Separation of power is an important concept within presidential systems like the United States, with presidential power constricted by established levels of responsibility. According to Lijphart (1999: 125), the separation of power within presidential systems implies “not only the mutual independence of the executive and legislative branches but also the rule that the same person cannot simultaneously serve both”, which isn’t the case in parliamentary systems, where the Prime Minister does have control of both branches of government (SOURCES). This also applies to the powers of US state governments, with certain areas of policy i.e. educational standards and criminal justice (BIIP, 2004) controlled by states r...

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