What Are the advantages of Parliamentarism

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The main focus area of this paper, as directed by the question, will concentrate on the advantages of Parliamentarism, but due to the ambiguous nature of the democratic process and the diverse political cleavage that can make up the electorate, arguments have raged over which democratic system is best suited for a sovereign nation to adopt (Schmitter and Lynn 1990). By definition, having an advantage puts one in a favourable or superior position over another. This, by definition, instructs this essay to espouse the benefits of Parliamentarism contrasted against Presidentialism. The paper will endeavour to explain the meaning and structure of Parliamentarism, which in turn will allow the essay to examine what advantages and disadvantages it holds juxtaposed against Presidentialism. This endeavour has echoes of being a straight forward task, but when you take into consideration the varied forms of Westminster styled parliaments fostered in sovereign countries like Canada, Australia, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand among others. The semi-Presidential system of Finland and the French fifth republic. The Presidential system of the U.S.A. and the various manifestations of the US style presidential system adopted across Latin America. Suddenly this task becomes a much greater undertaking, and would be beyond the scope of this paper to extensively examine and contrast each and every representative manifestation. So for the purpose of this essay, the arguments put forward will elucidate using the strictest understanding of what the democratic systems of Parliamentarism and Presidentialism pertain to.
As outlined, the main focus of this paper will endeavour to show the advantages of Parliamentarism pitched against Presidentialism. In orde...

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...uaranteed to create democratic stability, or even make better and more insightful decisions than their Presidential counterparts, but he does state the “vast majority of stable democracies in the world today are Parliamentary regimes” (Linz 1989, p.52). Using this hypostasis, I have constructed the essay in a way that hopefully shows the advantages of the imperfect systems’ of Parliamentarism over Presidentialism. Admittedly, mainly because of word count restrictions, the paper is not a comprehensive examination of the different democratic environments, and is very much open to debate, but by taking this approach of loosely contrasting Parliamentarism and Presidentialism, I have attempted to show the flexibility and inherent benefits of Parliamentarism. Which I feel ultimately affords a more pluralistic, policy balanced and stable approach to the democratic process.

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