Chapter 9: Executives
This Week…
• What is the executive branch?
• How is the Executive Organized?
▫ Parliaments, Presidents and Mixed Systems
• Formal and Informal Powers (and limits on
these powers)
• Stability and Instability in the Executive
What is the Executive Branch?
• Branch of government that executes laws
▫ Administers/enacts laws or policy
• Executive has policy making rules
▫ Fused powers
▫ Budgetary issues
▫ Policy preferences
• Power relationships between legislative and
executive branches is variable by system
What is the Executive Branch? 2
• Executive often held accountable for quality of services
▫ Run the bureaucracy
• Heads of State
▫ Symbolic leader of the states (Ex. Queen, some Presidents)
• Heads of Government
▫ Forms government, policies
▫ Runs the day to day business of state (Ex. Prime Ministers)
• Dual Executives
What is the Executive Branch? 3
• Given power over bureaucracy, executive could
be considered most powerful branch
• When democracy fails, Executives usually
remain
• Executives have political and non-political
components
Presidential Systems
▫ Important note: Just because a country has a
president, DOES NOT MEAN it’s necessarily a
presidential system (e.g. India)
• Direct(ish) election for the President
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Can be plurality or majoritarian election
Fixed term
Strict, constitutional separation of powers
Cannot propose laws (but can veto)
Demands compromise
Impeachment
Parliamentary Systems
• Election of Members of Parliament
▫ Members of Parliament choose Head of
Government: Prime Minister/Premier/Chancellor
▫ Indirect Election
▫ Prime Minister is usually the leader of the largest
party, chosen before an election – so, most voters
know who PM will be
▫ Head of State usually a Figure Head
Parliamentary Systems 2
• What else?
▫ Often leaders must be negotiated in incidence of
Minority Government
▫ Fused powers
▫ Confidence votes/Responsible Government
▫ Party discipline
▫ Executive Dominance
Semi-Presidential Systems
• Directly elected president
• Prime Minister responsible to legislature, but
also President
• President can often fire PM
• As such, Presidents can be de facto Head of
Government
Types of Formal Power in Constitutions
• Powers can vary across states
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Veto Power
Power of Dissolution
Decree (usually undemocratic)
Executive Order (democratic version of Decree)
States of Emergency
Formal Limits on Power
• Impeachment
• Censure
• Non-Confidence
• Term Limits
• But, the legislature needs to act responsibly
Partisan Powers
• Often times more important than formal powers
• Power of legislature in part dependent on
control of executive over individual members of
legislature
• Primaries
Coalition Governments
• Coalitions are when two or more parties actively
work together to govern
▫ Usually in parliamentary systems
▫ Presidential systems can use it (Brazil)
• Many electoral systems limit majority
governments
• Junior Members and Cabinet
Coalition Governments Cont…
• Coalitions can be complicated
▫ Do not need to have the largest party involved
▫ Can be made up of many different parties
• Minimum Winning Coalitions
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Minimum Connected Coalitions
Minimum Size Coalitions
Minimum Number of Parties Coalition
Median Party Coalition
Grand Coalition
• Failing to win a majority does not require a coalition
Informal Powers of the Executive
• Influence debate
▫ Make speeches with broad audience
• Power to persuade
• Patronage
• Clientelism (these last two are bad)
Stability
• Long standing debate about which system of
governance is better
• Parliamentary system often seen as more
effective:
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Clear legitimacy
No fixed elections
Broader coalition of interests
“Presidential” styles tend to be more authoritarian
Insider executives
Presidential Systems and Democratic
Consolidation
• Some argue that observations of more stability
of parliamentary systems is an issue of wealth,
not style of government
• Presidential systems due tend towards
delegative democracy
• Populism and the economy
• Strong central governments and the economy
Parliamentarism and Instability
• Because PMs can be fired, there can be high
levels of turn over
• Systems that tend towards minority
governments can also result in turnover
▫ Sometimes without elections
• Italy
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