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CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE POLITICAL EXECUTIVE

16.1 The political executive as the top tier of government, providing direction, supervision, crisis leadership and also mobilizing popular support (p. 329).

 

16.2 Presidential government. Direct election; fixed term; separation from legislature; president also head of state. Many presidents but few presidential systems. Mainly an American (N. and S.) phenomenon (pp. 329-30).

 

16.3 The American presidency: high expectations but severe constraints. Going Washington and going public. The advisory system and its weaknesses. The Brazilian presidency: more formal powers but also greater limits. Weak control of Congress, given PR and a weak multi-party system. Unlike the USA, the Brazilian executive contains appointments from several parties: coalition government in a presidential setting (pp. 330-6).

 

16.4 Parliamentary government. Collegial executive emerging from, and depending on, the legislature. Separation of head of government and head of state. Two forms: majority government ( Britain, plurality system) vs. minority and coalition government (most of continental Europe, PR). Rules for installing governments: investiture votes. Coalitions: minimum winning and rainbow. Stability of coalitions: average length two years. Constructive vote of no confidence. Balance between cabinet, prime ministerial and ministerial government. Expansion of prime minister’s influence and emergence of cabinet committees; however, there are weaknesses in the presidentialization thesis (pp. 336-43).

 

16.5 Heads of state in parliamentary government. Efficient and dignified roles. Survival of monarchs and their occasional influence in some countries. How selected (pp. 343-4).

 

16.6 The semi-presidential (dual) executive: the president and the prime minister both play political roles. Division of responsibilities. The example of the Fifth French Republic. The president as a national figure, the assembly as a collection of sectional interests. Danger of conflict between president and prime minister. Cohabitation (pp. 344-8).

 

16.7 The authoritarian executive. Weak institutionalization, leading to succession struggles and preeminence of politics over policy. A game of high stakes. Patriarchal rule in the Middle East: personal but stable. Personal rule in Africa. Constraints on authoritarian rulers. The totalitarian executive: more regularized in communist than in the leader-centred fascist states. The connection between authoritarian rule and despotism; the case of Stalin (pp. 348-51).

 

16.8 The executive in illiberal democracies. Bias to the presidential form, with an emphasis on personal rule and the responsibilities entrusted in the national leader. The tradition of autonomous state power in Russia and the resource it provides for an effective president in what is formally a semi-presidential system (pp. 351-2).