part 2

• Presidential system


  Form of government characterized by the separation of powers, consisting of its executive and legislative functions
• Parliamentary system


  A form of government with power channeled through its assembly or legislature
• Presidential system


  • Constitutional and political separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government
  • Based on the application of the doctrine of separation of powers
• The separation of powers principle means that each of the three functions of government (legislation, execution, adjudication) should be entrusted to a separate branch of government, to fragment government power and defend liberty
• Countries with a presidential system


  • United States
  • Philippines
• Presidential system features


  • The executive and the legislature are separately elected
  • Formal separation of personnel between legislative and executive branches
  • Executive cannot be removed by legislature except through impeachment
  • President/executive cannot dissolve the legislature
  • Executive authority concentrated in the president
• Parliamentary system


  The government governs in and through the assembly, or parliament or legislature, with the executive branch being drawn from, and accountable to, the assembly
• 'Government' in a parliamentary system usually refers to the political executive, or the prime minister and their cabinet
• Countries with a parliamentary system

  • United Kingdom
• Parliamentary system features


  • Governments are formed as a result of assembly or legislative elections
  • Personnel of government drawn from and accountable to the assembly/legislature
  • Government stays based on the confidence of the legislature and can be removed if it loses that confidence
  • Government can dissolve the assembly/legislature
  • Parliamentary executives are generally collective
• Semi-presidential system


  A 'dual executive' in which a separately elected president works together with a prime minister and a cabinet drawn from and responsible to Parliament
• Countries with a semi-presidential system


  • Russia
  • The Philippines (from most of the martial law period until 1986)
• There are different forms of semi-presidentialism: 'balanced', 'asymmetrical', and 'superpresidentialism'
• Executive branch


  The branch of government focused on the implementation of laws and policies
• Legislative branch


  The branch of government focused on duties such as law-making and representation
• Bicameral system


  Legislature composed of two chambers
• Judiciary


  The branch of government focused on applying laws
• The three dimensions of power that shape the influence of political executives are the formal, informal, and external dimensions
• In a parliamentary system, the executive powers are split between the president/monarch (head of state with ceremonial functions) and the prime minister (head of government with most political powers)
• In a presidential system, the president is both head of state and head of government, usually directly elected by the people
• Functions of the legislature

  • Legislation
  • Representation
  • Scrutiny and oversight
  • Political recruitment
  • Legitimacy
• The judiciary applies the laws written by the legislature, and interprets the laws through their decisions
• The Supreme Court in the Philippines has strong independent powers, as a corrective measure post-martial law period
• Unitarianism


  Form of government wherein power has a centralized distribution
• Federalism


  Form of government wherein power is shared among central and peripheral institutions
• Over one-third of the world's population is governed by states that have some kind of federal structure
• Countries with federal government

  • United States
  • Brazil
  • Germany
  • Malaysia
• Features of a federal government

  • Two relatively autonomous levels of government
  • Written constitution
  • Constitutional arbiter (the judiciary)
  • Representatives like the legislature
• Federal systems are favored because they give regional and local interests a constitutionally guaranteed political voice, diffuse government power to create checks and balances, and provide an institutional mechanism for fractured societies to maintain unity and coherence
• The vast majority of contemporary states have unitary systems of government
• Countries with unitary government

  • United Kingdom
  • France
  • Japan
  • Philippines
• In unitary states, there are two distinct institutional forms of peripheral authority: local governments and local legislatures
• Local government


  Governing body in a specific locality
• Devolution


  Decentralized unitary form of government transitioning to federalism
• Local governments have democratic legitimacy that enables them to extend their formal powers and responsibilities, through a process of bargaining and negotiation with central authority
• Devolution in the Philippines establishes the greatest possible measure of decentralization in a unitary system of government, short of transforming it into a federal system