Parliamentary Presidential and Semi Presidential Democracies Chapter 12 Classifying Democracies Types of Democracies 1 Parliamentary 2 Presidential 3 Semi Presidential Classification depends on the relationship between the Government political chief executive cabinet the Legislature the President if there is one 1st question to ask when classifying democracies Is the gov t responsible to the elected legislature Legislative Responsibility office without cause Means the legislative majority has constitutional power to remove gov t from Mechanisms through which legislative responsibility occurs 1 Vote of No Confidence initiated by legislature if government does not obtain legislative majority it must resign vote of whether or not government should remain in office 2 Constructive Vote of No Confidence same as vote of confidence initiated by legislature need majority to stay in power BUT requires those who oppose the gov t to also indicate who should replace gov t if incumbent loses If successful removes one government and replaces it with another 3 Vote of Confidence Government must obtain legislative majority or resign However o Initiated by the government itself not legislature Why would the gov t initiate a Vote of Confidence o Strategic Purposes Attach it to a piece of legislation the gov t isn t sure will pass on its own Unite a divided party Humiliate their critics 2nd question to ask when classifying democracies Is the head of state popularly elected for a fixed term Head of state is popularly elected if 1 Voters cast ballots for potential candidate 2 Voters cast ballots to elect an assembly electoral college Head of state serves a fixed term if serves a fixed period of time before she needs to be reappointed and cannot be removed from office in the meantime Summary of Democracies Presidential government does not depend on a legislative majority to exist Parliamentary government depends on a legislative majority to exist head of state is NOT popularly elected for a fixed term Semi Presidential Government depends on legislative majority to exist head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term Parliamentary Democracies Overview Most common form of democracy o Popularity has fallen dramatically 1978 74 of all democracies parliamentary 2008 43 Government consists of prime minister and cabinet o Prime Minister political chief executive o Cabinet composed of ministers whose job is to be in cabinet and head of various government departments Ministerial Responsibility o The department of which the minister heads is known as a minister portfolio o Constitutional doctrine of ministerial responsibility says the minister bears the ultimate responsibility for what happens in her ministry department Collective Cabinet Responsibility o Doctrine by which ministers most publicly support collective cabinet decisions or resign Ministers are free to debate within cabinet meetings but once the decision is made they must stick with it o As a member of a cabinet head of government department minister is part of a collective entity responsible for making most important decisions about direction of government policy Government Formation Process in Parliamentary Democracy Citizens do not elect prime minister or cabinet members only elect members Any proposed government must enjoy confidence of legislature to come to of legislature power and stay in power o sometimes must demonstrate this before they take office they do this through an investiture vote whether a proposed government can take office investiture vote formal vote in legislature to determine if it does not win majority they cannot take office even without a formal vote potential government must have support of legislative majority If a single party controls majority of seats in legislature typically a single party majority government forms There are no rules as to who should be in the legislative majority Tight party discipline formation process is done by a small group of senior politicians Relatively rare to have majority parties in parliamentary democracies Head of state presides over gov t formation process o o Extent in which head of state plays an active role varies country to country Formateur person designated to form the government often the Prime Minister designate Leader from party winning most seats usually acts as formateur Once chosen formateur puts a gov t together that is acceptable to the legislative majority o Informateur person designated to pick formateur to form the gov t Ability to nominate cabinet members is one of the most important powers held by the Prime Minister formateur o Single party PM has enormous discretion o Coalition PM more constrained Once cabinet has been nominated support of the legislative majority may or may not have been demonstrated in investiture vote o If investiture vote fails bargaining process starts again o If it succeeds head of state appoints cabinet to office Government is free to rule until o There is another election o Lose vote of no confidence If government is defeated in vote of no confidence a new election is called and the incumbent gov t remains in office and runs the country as a caretaker government until next government formation process is complete Will not make important policy decisions Government Formation A Simple Model Purely Office Seeking World o Formateur can get other parties to join gov t only by giving them office o Gamson s Law Proportionality Norm Cabinet portfolios will be distributed among gov t parties in strict proportion to of seats each party contributes to gov t legislative majority There is a strong positive relationship b w share of cabinet portfolios and share of leg Seats but it is not perfect Smaller parties are overrepresented Larger parties underrepresented Slight Bias Smaller parties get more portfolios may not be more powerful ones Larger parties buying support of smaller parties o Implication You will not want more parties in government than are strictly necessary to obtain legislative majority Result form a particular type of coalition gov t called Minimal Winning Coalition MWC one in which there are no parties that are not required to control a legislative majority o Implication you will choose the Least Minimal Winning Coalition Least MWC MWC with the lowest of surplus seats Purely Policy Seeking World policy concessions o Formateur can get other parties to join the gov t only by giving them Formateur has to implement a coalition policy
View Full Document
Unlocking...