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President System vs Parliament System

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President System vs Parliament System
Presidential Government VS Parliamentary Government

Canada and the U.S. are ruled under two different political systems of government which are parliamentary government and presidential government. These two government systems are the most fundamental and dominant government methods in the world. The main issue and debate that has been concerned is that which form of government is more superior to the other. It will provide on the characteristics of parliamentary system and also characteristics of the presidential system. Moreover, comparison of main elements of these two systems will be examined as well. Contemporary examples from both the Canadian and the U.S system will be illustrated to strengthen main differences. This paper will argue on the debate between presidential and parliamentary system, and will prove that form of presidential government is more superior to the parliamentary system. The supportive statements will be provided throughout this essay.
There are certain features on parliamentary government and presidential government. Parliamentary system, according to Warwick, “[is] also known as parliamentarianism, is equated with Westminster variant, which, in its pure form, envisages a single, highly disciplined party in firm control of both the executive and the legislative branches of government” (Warwick, 2006, p.1). The origin of parliamentary government can be dated back to the government that started in kingdom of Great Britain during the 17th and 18th century. Several countries gradually adopted and reformed the system to best align with their political background (Dyck, 2006). The parliament usually consists of two chambers which are elected lower house and upper house. The representatives in the lower house are elected directly by the public as their political representatives, but the senate in the upper house are appointed or elected by using different methods from the lower house (“UNDP’s WWW Governance”.n.d.). The prime minister, the head



Bibliography: Abueva, J. V. (2005). Why Change our Presidential Government to a Parliamentary government? A PRIMER 03/01/06. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from EBSCO. Dr. Benjamin Reilly (2003) Government Structure and Electoral Systems. Retrieved March 29, 2007 from http://www.cic.nyu.edu/archive/pdf/E20GovtStructureElectoralSystemsReilly.pdf. Bradshaw, Kenneth, and David Pring (1982) Parliament and Congress. New York: Quartet Books, Calabresi, Steven G Christopher N. Lawrence (2000) Regime Stability and Presidential Government: The Legacy of Authoritarian Rule, 1951-1990 Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://www.cnlawrence.com/papers/stability-review.pdf Dell G. Hitchner (1970) Comparative Government and Politics, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc Dyck, Rand, (ED) (2006) Studying Politics: An Introduction to Political Science Hargrove, E. C. & Nelson, M. (1984). Presidents, Politics, and Policy. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press. Henry C K Liu (2006, October) PART6: Korea under Park Chung-hee Asia times online Jan Herman Reestman (2006) Presidential Elements in Government. Retrieved March 29, 2007 From http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FECL%2FECL2_01%2FS157401960600054Xa.pdf&code=87fe6fc65819d214215d621ee092fd38 Lijphart, Arend, (ED) (1992) Parliamentary Versus Presidential Government Paul V. Warwick (2006) Policy Horizons And Parliamentary Government. Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York, N.Y: Palgrave Macmillan Nevil Johnson (2004) Reshaping the British Constitution UNDP’s WWW Governance. (n.d). Retrieved March 25, 2007 from http://www.undp.org/governance/docs/Parl-Pub-govern.htm.

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