Presidential Republic
Contents
The presidential form of government holds the president as the leader of the executive and legislature. The president, therefore, is the supreme elected member who holds the key of the law-making body as well as the executive body of the government. The supreme power rests in his hands. He, as elected by the popular adult franchise, for a definite period, makes his own decisions. For example, his powers allow him to distribute his offices not only to the members of parliament but also to the non-members, outstanding people of their respective fields, on his prudence, to run a smooth administration.
The presidential system is based on the separation of powers of legislative, executive, and judiciary as well as the sharing of powers between these three pillars for the smooth functioning of the state. The prime example of the presidential form of government is the United States, the model of which is followed by few other democracies such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines. These democracies have extensive powers vested in their independent chief executive namely the president. The power of the president in this system is related to both internal and external affairs and foreign policies. The president is directly accountable to his people and not to the legislature. The voters, however, have no direct way to dismiss their president. As in the United States, the unpopular president, the executive officers, and the judiciary members can be dismissed through the proceedings of impeachment and conviction established by the law.
The virtue of the presidential form of the democratic government lies in its stability as believed by many political philosophers. The balance of which lies in the commitment of the sharing of the power among the legislative, executive, and judiciary, their checks and balances, their deliberation, and compromises of different laws in process and execution, which finally helps to achieve the goals of limited government and individual rights and especially the rights of minorities of the country.
Merits Of Presidential Form Of Government
- Stability: It is the prime merit of the Presidential form of government. The president elected through popular vote has a fixed tenure which brings efficiency in the governance and smooth running of the administration.
- Separation of power: This checks the authoritarianism of any branch of the government and ensures the rights and liberties of the citizens.
- Prompt and effective decisions: Since the president is head of the state and government, he can take important decisions swiftly and effectively.
- Committed Governance: The president has powers to appoint the experts of their respective fields to head the offices irrespective of party affinity.
Demerits Of Presidential Form Of Government
The presidential form of government has its own limitation too.
- Executive may become dictatorial: The President enjoys vast power and his tenure is fixed, there would be every possibility that he may act like a dictator and overlook public interest in taking decisions.
- Conflict or deadlock between the organs: The executive and the legislative being the autonomous bodies may find each other on the ends while making or executing certain laws. As not being answerable to each other on any matter there is a possibility of deadlock between the two.
- The checks and balances: It is opposing to economic planning.
- Stiffness of constitution: The rigidity of the constitution might be a hindrance to cope with the changing circumstances.
- Probability of disagreement between executive and legislature.