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Comparison of the parliamentary and presidential system of government
Comparison of the parliamentary and presidential system of government
Comparison of the parliamentary and presidential system of government
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Today, South Africa is a parliamentary democracy, headed by a president who is responsible to parliament. The country’s government is in many ways, a unique structure. Apart from essentially having three different capital cities for each branch of government—an arrangement seen as cumbersome by many officials, especially considering parliament is located on a different side of the country from the executive and the courts—it also combines elements from both the presidential system, in which the president is both head of state and head of government, and the parliamentary system, in which the president is dependent upon the majority support within parliament.
The executive branch in South Africa has gone through a number of changes since the Union of South Africa was created in 1910 by its British rulers. In those times, the country was governed in a manner similar to how countries such as Australia, New Zealand, or Canada are governed today, in that a parliament-dependent prime minister was head of government, but the British monarch, lastly Elizabeth II, was head of state and was re...
South Carolina stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Blue Ridge Mountains, containing 31,113 square miles. Fortieth in geographic area among the fifty states, it ranks twenty-sixth in population. The Palmetto State's four million citizens value its rich history, a legacy that is a prime factor in making tourism one of the state's largest industries.
studied South African history to any extent would be remiss not to take notice. The
...bances began to emerge, and the economy began to drop. Unrest cost many lives, until demands for change were heard and the political system was revised. In 1994, the South African people went to the polls for the first time and held a democratic election in which Nelson Mandela became president. The country of South Africa has made strides in healing their broken country.
Discussions of which constitutional form of government best serves the growing number of democratic nation’s are being debated around the world. In the essay “The Perils of Presidentialism”, political scientist, Juan Linz compares the parliamentary with presidential systems as they govern democracies. As the title of Linz’s essay implies, he sees Presidentialism as potentially dangerous and sites fixed terms, the zero-sum game and legitimacy issues to support his theory. According to Linz, the parliamentary system is the superior form of democratic government because Prime Minister cannot appeal to the people without going through the Parliament creating a more cohesive form of government. By contrast, a President is elected directly by the
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.
Around the 1970s, due to South Africa’s internal contradictions with its economy and people, the Apartheid began its slow demise. Soon the united nation began to take notice of South Africa and began to get involved. With South Africa now in the spot light, Prime Minister P.W Botha left office due to his belief that he had failed to keep order in the country. After the reassignment of P.W Botha, F.W Klerk had taken office. The final stage of the demise of the Apartheid began when Klerk lifted the ban off the ANC and other African political parties. The last blow was the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison. Now that South Africa’s hope was out of prison he continued to ...
In Cape Town we have a very rich culture and heritage, starting as early as the Khoisan era and leading up to the liberated society that we are today. South Africa has progressed through many different trials and tribulations throughout the years, conquering numerous noteworthy feats such as slavery and the Apartheid struggle (Bray, 2008). “South Africa is democratic developing country where everybody has the right to vote so that their voices may be heard” (Smith, 1999).
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.
Every country differs in their preference of political system to govern their countries. For democratic countries, two possible choices of governing are the presidential system and the parliamentary system. Since both the presidential and the parliamentary systems have their own strengths and weaknesses, many scholars have examined these two forms of government, and debate on which political system is more successful in governance. In this paper, I will first provide a detailed analysis of both the parliamentary and the presidential system. I will also evaluate each system’s strengths and weaknesses, addressing any differences as well as any commonalities. Finally, I will conclude by using historical examples to analyze and support the presidential system, which would be a more desirable system for a democratic government.
Countless of years ago a great mountain range stretched north from what is now the topmost coast of South America, the range was in a constant state of upheaval, lashed by continuous rains, swept by storms, with fire spouting from every peak finally the mountains dropped beneath the sea, quieted most of the volcanoes. The exposed peaks were covered with verdure of fantastic beauty, and left these peaks above the sea to form the chain of West Indian islands as we know today. Although they were islands surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, and are nowhere near Asian India, they were still considered the West Indian islands. Then why the concept of West Indian, we ask? Christopher Columbus, who discovered these islands, can surely explain why he gave such a name to islands that were never Indian descent.
Primarily the lack of foreign investment, especially when South Africa's gold and diamond reserves are emptied as other parts of economy are not as developed. Secondly, the economic gap between whites and blacks that was stretched during the time of apartheid needs to be tightened or else it could become dangerous to the stability of the political system. However, due to the leadership of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s current government structure exists to solve these issues.
This fusion of power allows the people’s representatives in the legislature to directly engage the executive in debates discussion in issues that will bring positive development in the state. This is not possible in the presidential system since the legislative and the executives arms are constitutionally separated and thereby restricted to engage the legislature in a discussion in which reasons are advanced against some proposition or proposal. The outcome is that party leaders in parliamentary system are more reliable than those in presidential systems. Presidential systems have turned the aim of electoral campaign into personalities rather than platform and programs because the focus is on the candidate and not on the party in general. But parliamentary systems on the other hand focus much more relating structured they do not do anything outside the scope of the party. We can compare the quality of leadership or administration in British, Canadian prime minister to the United State president. In all the country presidential system of government are chosen because people think been a good leader is by popularity and the ability to win election not minding if the candidate is fit for the task of presidency. But in parliamentary system, the person that has high quality of leadership competent enough and trustworthy is
The topic that I will be discussing is Thai culture. In this, it will include areas that influence this culture. First, I will give you the geographical information of the country of Thailand. The second area that I will look at will be language. Language is an extremely important part of culture and some say that one cannot be found without the other. After that I will inform you about customs, traditions and taboos in Thai culture. This is a very important part of culture and is what shows the differences between cultures. Then I briefly tell you about the government and some national symbols, such as the flag, the symbol, colors, anthem, dress, and national day. Next, I will explain about religion in Thailand. In most cultures there is religion, but in Thailand it is interwoven into its whole culture and it is hard to separate the two. One other thing that I will include in this paper is a link to a page with pictures from my trip to Thailand.
South Africa is a nation with a wonderful and varied culture. This country has been called “The Rainbow Nation”, a name that reflects the diversity of such amazing place. The different ethnic and cultural groups of the South Africa do, however, appreciate their own beliefs and customs. Many of these traditions, besides African culture, are influenced by European and Western heritage. The complex and diverse population of the country has made a strong impact to the various cultures. There are forty-five million people; about thirty million are black, five million white, three million coloured and one million Indians. The black population has a large number of rural people living in poverty. It is among these inhabitants that cultural customs are preserve the most.