Legal Article

Difference between a Parliamentary Democracy and a Presidential Democracy

By- Pranshutosh Kumar

Abstract

Democracy means a form of state is merely or made of appointing, controlling and dismissing a government. Democracy can be direct and indirect. Where is democracy is beneficial and suitable and what are the ways that help the democracy to be good form of government. After this democracy can be classify into Parliamentary and Presidential democracy. In Parliamentary democracy there is a Prime Minister and its cabinet. Voters have the right to choose their representative and form the government, the real head of the state is the President. All the power are in thehand of government, he can make laws alone. There is also independence of executive but there is a problem that president can use his power unnecessary.

Introduction According to Abraham Lincoln, "Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.""I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong." - M K Gandhi Democracy – The word democracy is derived from the two Greek word demo and Cratia. Demo dignifies ‘the people and the Croatia signifies ‘power’. Democracy itself means rule by the people. It is s political system where by representation elected by the people take control of all the decision making processes. Democracy is a type of political system in which government is form by the people and exercised either directly or through elected representative. In democracy people have different choice and opportunity to all the people on an equal basis. After choosing the government by the people government work according to the constitution of the country and according of the country and according to citizen rights.

Democracy can be direct or indirect. In direct democracy the people directly participate in the decision in the decision and affairs of the state. The direct democracy can be implemented only when the state have the participation of people in the meeting and decision are more. This mainly happen in Switzerland and some state in USA.

In indirect democracy people don’t take part directly in the affairs of the state. It is implemented in larger countries. In this people choose their representatives for a specific period who have the potential to run the state better. This indirect democracy follows in the India, USA, Sri Lanka, England etc.

Is Suitability of democracy is beneficial everywhere?

Many people have a mindset that democracy is applicable and suitable for industrialized and economically developed countries. The countries who are in developing stage can’t adopt the system of democracy like India and Pakistan.

They said that dictatorship is more good in comparison to democracy bring discipline among the people and there is no wastage of time in the process of passing legislature. But if we compare we [ India] as a developing country is able to manage poverty and backwardness. In India government provides various scheme and policies that directly help the poor people. So we can say that democracy is suitable for all the states for better growth.

Features of democracy

1] Free, Fair and Frequent Elections

Amongst the primary features of Democracy, every Democratic country in the world must hold elections, in one way or another and that too periodically. These elections are the voice of the public, the primary way by which they can control and change the Government as per their wishes. These elections must also have complete Transparency and Impartiality in terms imparting voting rights to each and every adult citizen of the country.

2] Representation of Minorities

Every nation in the world has minorities, on one basis or the other. It is one of the prominent Features of Democracy to give equal citizenship rights to each and every one of its countrymen. Exclusion or oppression of minorities should be abhorred, and the legal authority of the country should aid them in holding an equal status of life and livelihood in every possible way. 

3] Rule within the Constitutional Law

In a Democratic Country, the ruling Government is not paramount. Instead, it is the legislative body that holds the supreme power, as prescribed by the constitution of the Country. As a new government is elected after a fixed period of time, it only has the powers to make decisions and implement them, while making amends in some of the established laws.

4] Freedom of Speech, Expression and Choice

A Democracy which suppresses or withholds the public voice is not valid, violating one of the basic features of Democracy. The voice of the public, even if it is critical to the ruling party, should be allowed to flow freely, letting people formulate their own ideas and expressions, without being in fear of persecution.

5] Federal Rights

One of the essential features of Democracy gives the right to the state government to perform independently and implement rules and regulations for the benefit of the public. Article 1 of the Indian Constitution allows states to make few decisions without interference from the central government. In case, a law is passed by a central government then every state has to follow it.

Classification of democracy

Democracy can be classified into Parliamentary democracy and Presidential democracy.

1] Parliamentary Democracy

In this government includes a prime minister and its cabinet. Prime Minister is consider as a head of the government and also the political chief executive. The main function, aim and objective of the cabinet minister are to hold the various department of the government like Home minister, Defence minister, railway minister etc, and administer in a better way. Voters do not directly elect the government in the parliamentary democracy. Voters have the choice to elect their representatives and later they collectively decided who should go into government.

In many countries the Prime Minister of state is limited to simply swearing in the government proposed by party elites. In India Parliament, a parliamentary representative shows the interest and views of the people in LokSabha.

In this the executive is directly responsible to the legislature and each minister responsibility of the whole council. Two executive perform the duties namely the real and titular executive. The head of the state [ President or Monarch] is consider as a nominal executive and the Prime Minister who is the head of the government is consider as a real executive.

The essential things of parliamentary democracy is that the meeting and other undisclosed things discuss in the cabinet proceeding should not be divulged too the hole public of the state. Most of the parliamentary democratic country follow the bicameral legislature [ It is a system in which there are two assemblies, chamber or house. The main purpose of creating Bicameral legislature is to give the power to the subordinate to make rules and laws according to the situations.]. In this the president and Prime Minister does not have the fixed period of the tenure to stay on their position. Their position is fixed by the majority support in the lower house and upper house. Every of five year an Election Commission organize a election where people can choose their representative and make a government.

2] Presidential form of government

It is mainly based on the proposition of separation of power between the executive and legislature. In this, The executive is not responsible to the legislature, executive is independent and it is not control by the legislature.

According to Gettell , Presidential Government is that form in which the chief executive is independent of the legislature as to his tenure and to a large extent, as to his policies and acts. In this form of democracy the head of the real executive that is president . USA, Brazil, Sri Lanka etc are the countries who are running with presidential form of government.

All the power are with the president, he occupies a superior position in the state. It is also not necessary to follow the political homogeneity , it means people of cabinet can be from different political parties. It is a stable type of government because the tenure of the president is fixed for four year. It is more beneficial in the emergency situation because the hole power are in the hand of President, he can take any step effectively and efficiently but there is also some disadvantage that president can use his power unnecessary. There is less enactment of better laws and regulation because of this there is less harmony between executive and legislature. Constitution of that country also not rigid that is why it criticized because flexibility is necessary to balance the change in the environment. Irrespective of all these problems USA is able to maintain Presidential system of government.

Conclusion

The system of governance in countries differs depending on whether a country has a Presidential or Parliamentary system. There are some countries who have adopted a mixture of both these types as well. These systems have multiple differences based on separation of powers, accountability, executives etc.Both of these systems come with their own advantages and disadvantages. A country chooses the system which suits it the most. The Parliamentary system  allows representative governance, which is suitable in a diverse country like India.