Comparing and Contrasting Two Governmental Systems: Parliamentary vs Presidential

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Parliamentary System versus Presidential System

The way that a country is controlled by the government depends on the relationship between the legislative and executive authority. Most democratic nations, today, generally use one of two governmental systems, either a parliamentary system or a presidential system. Today most of Europe prefers to use a parliamentary system, whereas the presidential form of government is preferred in places such as South Korea, South America and the United States. The differences between these two governmental systems are not obvious at first, but there are some key differences. However, neither one of them is necessarily superior to the other.

During at elections one can notice a key difference between the two systems. In a parliamentary system the people of the nation elect a political party to represent their interests. Then the party that gains the majority of the votes elects, or may already have elected, someone to be their spokesperson who becomes the Prime Minister of said nation. In a presidential system, on the other hand, the people elect individual persons to become the President and members of the congress, in separate elections.

In a presidential system when all of the elections are complete the elected members are basically assured a full term of service in the government. The only way that an official can be removed from government is if an illegal act has been committed, through impeachment. In a parliamentary system, however, the people of the nation have the ability to vote a person in the government out of office if they are not satisfied. The opposition in the government are also able to vote someone out of office, in what is called a vote of no-confidence. If a member i...

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...idential veto of legislation.

As seen above there is quite a big difference in the way that the government is controlled in the two mentioned governmental styles. However, from what we have seen in nations so far one cannot say that one of the two systems can specifically be viewed as a superior or more liberal form of government. All one can say is that as democracy is becoming more and more popular around the world more and more nations are choosing to form their government according to one of the two above-mentioned ways. Both governments follow a fairly rigid system that endeavors to optimize the liberties of the people. Nations do not choose one of the two governments because it’s better but because it fits the nation’s citizens and culture better. Nowadays multiple countries even create a hybrid of the two types of governments to make it suit them the best.

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