Presidential government in usa- merists and de merits

Essay by aravindm July 2005

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PECULIAR FEATURES OF PRESIDENTIAL FORM OF

GOVERNMENT.

Bagehot once said, "The independence of the legislature and executive powers is the specific quality of Presidential government just as fusion and combination is the principle of Cabinet government."

The words of Bagehot made it clear that one of the most important feature of the Presidential system of government is the independence of the legislative and executive powers, that is the Presidential system is constitutionally independent of the legislature as regards the term of office of the President and his advisers; they are also not responsible to the legislature for their action and policies. Under the Presidential system the legislature and the executive are two distinct departments of government. There is more or less a divorce between the two. The executive is neither the creature of the legislature, nor is it responsible to that body for its public acts or dependent on it for remaining in office.

The legislature, too is similarly independent of the executive and is elected for a fixed term and cannot be dissolved by the executive before its term.

Another important feature of the Presidential system of government is the peculiar position of the head of the State. The head of the State, the President, is the real executive both as a matter of law and fact, and such power is the result of a direct grant from the constituent authority affected through express provisions of the constitution. The fact that the President is not merely a Chief Executive but also the Executive makes all 'ministers' or 'Cabinet Ministers' his assistants and thus denies them the more independent position of ministers in a Parliamentary system. They are not appointed from among the members of the legislature. They are responsible only to the President and not to...