The Growth of Presidentialism

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The Growth of Presidentialism

A presidential system of government is;

System of government where the president is given a personal mandate to govern by the people through general election

The president may have to share power in an elected body such as parliament or congress, but his authority to govern is not derived by having a majority in a such a body

The president does not govern through such a body, nor is he directly accountable to such a body; he is accountable to the people, the electorate.

President is not restricted with his choice of ministers or advisers; instead he is free to include who he wishes in his government which is entirely from a separate legislature

Ways in which Britain is not a presidential system of government

The Prime minister does not have a personal mandate to govern

The PM is only in power because he is leader of the party with the biggest majority in parliament

The PM and government must govern through parliament, have no authority to govern without the support of parliament, they can even be removed from office by parliament

The Government and parliament are not separate but have overlapping membership; every minister is either a member in House of Lords or Commons

PM does not represent whole nation or one state, which is the role of the monarch ; instead the PM is just head of government

decisions are made collectively by cabinet or cabinet committee, and not individually by the PM

In what ways has the PM become more presidential in recent years

This doesn't mean in his theoretical position, because the role of the PM has stayed the same, this means in practice, how is the PM becoming more and more like a president

PM has become increasingly important in General Elections, party leaders have become main focus in elections, for example TV debates

first appears that PM doesn't have power to appoint his own staff in a prime ministerial department in the same way a president, there is an increasing number of personal offices for PM, containing around 750 staff they appoint.

The leader has become one of the most important parts in retaining a good party image- particularly down to the media

PM has been accused of asking and using advice from his external support more than his own cabinet ministers

Some people are starting to think that the impartial cabinet is now turning into a prime ministerial department as it enables PM to create new units to achieve purposes within them

Conclusion

In my opinion, the Prime Minister is becoming increasingly more presidential. The numerous PM's since WW2 have taken full advantage of their powers, some more than others, for example I think that Thatcher and Blair were both very presidential. I think that this is both good and bad, they are technically not accountable, because the PM personally is not elected, and this is bad as accountability is one of the 5 prerequisites for democracy. However is also believe that the increasing presidential-ism isn't that bad because, recently it has became that generally the leader of the party is one of the main things people vote for.