Systems Of Governance Flashcards
What is Separation of Powers?
- The division of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government
- The checks and balances of government
What are the Powers in the Separation of Powers?
- Legislative
- Makes the general laws of the land: public (e.g. taxes) & private (marriage)
- Exectuive
- Proposes policies which use state resources
- Judicial
- Resolves conflicts when laws are not obeyed (courts)
What is the Origin of the Parliamentary System?
Glorious Revolution of 1688
What are the divisions in the Parliamentary System?
- The Executive
- House of Representatives
- Senate
- Cabinet
What different components are there to the Executive in a Parliamentary System?
- Formal component
- The Crown/Governor General
- Political component
- The Prime Minister and Cabinet
- Permanent component
- The public service
What is the difference between the Queen and the PM for Australia?
- The Queen is the Head of State
- The Prime Minister is head of government
What system of governance is Australia?
constitutional monarchy
How is the Crown involved in the Australian Governmental System?
- Authority is vested in the Queen
- Public land = Crown land
- Judicial system - Crown attorneys prosecute crimes on behalf of the state
- The entire Australian political system is underpinned by the authority of the Crown
- Take away the crown, the system collapses (technically)
What is the Governor General
The British monarch’s representative in Australia
What are the Governor General’s prerogative powers?
- Acts as head of state and commander and chief of the Australian armed forces
- Appoints the Prime Minister
- Dissolve and open Parliament
- Call an election on advice from the Prime Minister
What is true of the relationship between the Governor General and the PM?
- The Governor General never goes against the advice of the Prime Minister
- If the GG ignores the advice of her chief advisor (PM), the PM resigns immediately.
Where does the House of Representatives in a Parliamentary System get it’s power from?
- Gets its power from
- Power to enact legislation, to keep the government accountable, and to control the purse-strings
- Symbol of popular sovereignty or support from the people
What are the roles of the House of Reps in a Parliamentary System?
- Legislates
- Helps set the polttical agenda
- Legitimises government decisions
- Integrates and represents the political community
- Helps maintain the political system
What are the key defining features of the House of Reps in a Parliamentary System?
- Not a law making body
- It only refines, ratifies and legitimises legislation
- The executive is a law making (proposing) body
- The house provides support for strong and stable government
- Most of the business in the House is conducted by organised parties vying for power
How it the balance of local, national and party interests achieved in the House of Reps in a Parliamentary System?
- The organisation of the House of Reps is meant to house the system of responsible government
- MPs elected from and represent individual electorates
- MPs usually members of a political party
- Responsible government requires that the government can control a majority of the House
- Party discipline
What are the defining features of the Senate in a Parliamentary System?
- Equality of Seats
- Longer term in office (6 years)
- Difference electoral system (STV)
- Equal legislative powers to the House
- Strong committee system
What is Equality of Seats and what can it result in?
- 12 Senators from the States
- 2 Senators from the Territories
- If all states are equally represented in the Senate, big states can not over run little states
- Unfair advantage to small states?
What is the electoral system for the Senate in a Parliamentary System?
- Single transferable Votes system
- 6 Year term
- Longer term-limit allows more time for reasonable and nuanced argumentation
- Less dependent on the “winds of change”
What are the legislative powers of the Senate in a Parliamentary System?
- House of Review
- Review legislation that was presented form an ‘impassioned’ lower house majority
- “sober second thought”
- Initiation of legislation
- Same legislative powers as the HOR - save money bills
What is the Cabinet in a parliamentary system?
The central decision making body of the executive that coordinates government activity, adjudicates disputes between ministers and allocates resources to government departments
What is Cabinet Solidarity?
- Collective responsibility
- All members of the cabinet support government policy and do not criticise the government in public
- Important part of responsible government
- If unable, must resign
What are the characteristics of cabinet government?
- Very powerful
- Highly secretive
- By international standards, they are unusually large
- Single party creatures
- Drawn almost exclusively from elected legislators
- Prime Minister dominates
- Highly institutionalised and operate to precise routine
- Impermanent and homogenous
How is a cabinet created?
The PM is free to build Cabinet any way he or she wants from elected ministers
What are the consequences of cabinet size?
- Position of the PM is enhanced with a larger cabinet
- Power is dispersed
- Great incentive to control things from the center
- Overall competence suffers to some degree
What is the Myth of Fusion?
1 person, 2 jobs PM is still minister (legislative) despite being in the executive
What is responsible government?
- Embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability
- Term used to describe a political system where the executive government, the Cabinet and Ministry, is drawn from, and accountable to, the legislative branch.
- The political executive (cabinet) must retain the confidence of a majority of the elected assembly, and must resign or call an election if and when defeated
What is ministerial responsibility?
- Individual responsibility
- The principle that ministers are individually responsible to the HOC for everything that happens in their departments
- Waste, corruption, any misbehaviour
- A myth?
What is the origin of the Presidential system?
Grows out of the American Revolution and a backlash against a strong monarchial government
What is the key difference between the Presidential System and the Parliamentary?
No responsible government
What are the divisions of a Presidential System?
- President
- Cabinet
- Congress (House of Reps. and Senate)
- Judiciary
What is the President’s roles?
- Head of State
- Greets foreign dignitaries
- Head of Government
- Appointment powers
- Cabinet
- Judges
- Ambassadors
What are the qualifications required of the Presidency?
- Qualifications
- natural born citizen of the United States
- Be at least 35
- Have been a permanent resident in the US for at least 14 years
- 22nd Amendment
- President may only serve 2 terms (8 years)
What is the electoral college?
- The formal body that chooses the President of the United States (270/538 votes necessary)
- 1787
- “Upstanding citizens” chosen by voter in the state, determined by the total number of Congressman and Senators in the State
- Texas: 32 congressman, 2 senators
- 34 Electoral college cotes
What is the Vice-President and what are the qualifications for the job?
- 2nd in charge - 1st in line
- President of the Senate, breaks ties
- Qualifications
- Be a natural born US citizen
- Not be younger than 35
- Have lived in US for at least 14 years
- Not have already served two terms as President
What is Congress?
- Consists of two houses:
- House of Representatives
- Senate
What is the House of Representatives in a Presidential System?
- 435 members: elected based on population
- Terms of 2 years (one of the shortest in world), with fixed election dates
What is the Senate in a Presidential System?
- 100 members: 2 from each state
- Elected for a 6-year term, with 1/3 of Senators facing election every 2 years
- Advice and Consent
- Treaties
- Cabinet secrataries
- Judges
What are cabinet secretaries in a Presidential System?
- Currently 15
- May not hold a seat in congress - myth of fusion
- Unlike parliamentary systems, do not meet as a group
What are White House Staff?
- Cabinet secretaries
- Admin departments
- “Texas/Chicago mafia”
What control does the President have over the legislative function?
- Bill passed by both HOR and Senate then:
- Sign the bill in to law
- Do nothing: 10 days no signature/veto becomes law
- Regular veto: 10 days after arrival, send back to Congress unsigned with reasons
- Pocket Veto: if Congress is not sitting, simply refuse to sign (10 days)
How can a Presidential veto be overridden?
- Congress can respond to a Presidential veto with a 2/3 majority vote in both houses any time during the Congress when the veto was issued
- However is one house fails to get 2/3 the other house does not vote
What are the major strengths of the Parliamentary System?
- Majority gov’t power to govern
- Non-confidence vote provides check on gov’t
- Voters make decision on party stance
What are the major strengths of the Presidential System?
- Seperation of Powers
- Checks and balances limit gov’t power
- Low party discipline
What are the major weaknesses of the Presidential System?
- Too fragmented (getting things done)
- Voters must wait for election to unseat unpopular member
- Voters can’t pin responsibility on one party
What are the major weaknesses of the Parliamentary System?
- Unstable in minority
- Too powerful with majority (?)
- Strict party discipline
