Question

Elaborate on any two differences between the Presidential and the Parliamentary forms of government.

Answer 1

Two differences between the Presidential and parliamentary forms of government are as follows:

1. In a presidential government, the president serves as the head of both the state and the government. He undertakes all ceremonial functions as the head of state while also exercising all practical executive duties as the government's top executive. In presidential form, the president has the most powerful office.
   The parliamentary executive, on the other hand, is divided into two parts: the nominal executive, which is the head of state and may be the President or the Monarch depending on the country and the real executive, which is made up of the Prime Minister, who is in control of the government and the cabinet. The nominal executive is only an ornamental device. The Prime Minister and Cabinet truly wield full authority.
2. In a presidential system of government, the executive serves a defined and predetermined term, following which the legislature cannot remove or vote it out of office. The legislature can only remove the executive through the complex process of impeachment. The true executive (the Council of Ministers, under the direction of the Prime Minister) in a parliamentary system of government has a maximum term of 5 or 4 years, but it remains in office as long as the legislature's majority supports it. If the legislature passes a no-confidence resolution, the executive must resign.