Representative Democracy
Parliamentary vs Presidential
Similarities
There are many similarities between parliamentary and presidential systems.
- Ruled by some form of a Constitution.
- People elect representatives,
- Leader is the head of military and runs the government.
Parliamentary
There are several differences between a parliamentary system and a presidential system.
- Legislative body holds the power, they choose chief executive.
- Head of State and Government are held by two different people. The head of state may be a monarch.
- Chief Executive answers to Legislature and is typically from the same party, which makes achieving their goals much easier.
- Fairly easy for Legislature to remove chief executive.
Presidential
Presidential systems have many differences from Parliamentary systems.
- Chief Executive separate from Legislature.
- Checks and Balances system to limit power.
- Chief Executive is Head of State and Government.
- Legislature and Chief Executive voted separately- can be from different parties.
- Difficult to remove Chief Executive from power.