the executive and legislature

What are the three big reasons to study electoral systems?

1. a growing number of people specialise in electoral systems

2. electoral systems have become politically interesting

3. they define how the political system will function (they are the cogs that keep the wheels of democracy properly functioning

What is the primary function of electoral systems?

Ensuring the smooth running and accepted legitimacy of the system

What are some other functions of electoral systems?

• Reflecting the wishes of voters

• Producing strong and stable governments

• Electing qualified individuals

What are some examples of electoral laws?

(These govern the process of the election)

• laws on who can vote (citizens, residents, age,)

• obliging citizens who turn out to vote (eg australia)

• how citizens vote

• the style of the ballot paper

What is a ‘proportional’ outcome electoral system?

• Ensures the number of seats each party wins reflects as closely as possible the number of votes it has recieved

What is the essence of a non-proportional electoral system?

Greater importance is attached to ensuring that one party has a clear majority of seats over its competitors, increasing the prospect of strong and stable government

What does the ballot structure determine?

How voters cast their votes

What are the two types of ballots?

• categorical ballots (either/or choice)

• ordinal ballots (voters can vote for all candidates, ranking in order of preference)

What does a constitution do?

• It sets out the rights of citizens and determines how the country will be governed, ie;

  • authoritarian/democratic

  • who will make the law and how? (legislature)

  • who will enforce the law and how? (executive)

How do we prevent the tyranny of the majority? “suppose a legislature duly representing public duty… drown all children born during the next two years”, the right to ignore the state

• the separation of the powers

How do liberal democracies limit the tyranny of the majority, AKA, how do they enforce separation of power?

They divide power between:

• the legislative branch (which makes the law)

• the executive branch (which executes the law)

• the judicial branch (which adjudicates and applies the law)

No one party or person controls all three elements.

The principle of federalism also supports the separation of power - power is divided between federal, state and sometimes local governments

How does the principle of federalism support the separation of power?

It divides power between federal, state and sometimes local governments.

Does Australia have seaparation of the power?

It has partial separation of power. The executive sits in the legislature. There are also regular opportunities to get rid of governments (short electoral terms)

What is the executive?

The top government tasked with decisions on how we govern. Consider COVID: deciding to close down or open borders.

What are the two roles of the executive government?

1. the executive government as ‘leadership’

   1. head of state and head of government

   2. sets policy and political direction

2. executive government as ‘executor’

   1. mobilises support

   2. resolves crises, makes decisions

   3. oversees implementation

What is the head of the state?

The figurehead leader of the state who may be elected or appointed, or may inherit the position.

Australian example: the king, represented by the Australian governor general

What is the head of government?

the political leader of a government, elected or authoritarian leader. for example, prime minister Anthony Albanese

Are the head of state and head of government always separate?

No. Some do not have a distinction, for example in the USA. The figurehead of the state and political leader are inseparable

What are the similiarities of parliamentary and presidential democracy?

• Personalisation

• ‘Chief diplomat’ and principle politician

• Apex of beaurocracies

What are the differences of parliamentary and presidential governments?

• Power over legislation

• Origin, source of executive authority

• Survival; accountability mechanisms

What do the relationship between ‘the people’ and executive look in parliamentary vs presidential?

What is semi-presidentialism? (hybrid system)

Divided/dual executive.

What are the key features of semi-presidentialism?

• President

  • Popularly elected

  • non-trivial powers

  • has a say in composition of executive

• Prime-minister and cabinet

  • Drawn from and accountable to elected legislature

What are the two subtypes of semi-presidentialism?

• premier presidential (France)

• president parliamentary (Russia)

What is the major issue with semi-presidentialism?

• It makes it harder for political parties to work together

(ie, if Macron is centrist, the far left is the majority, a centrist leader will not be let in because the far left has the voting power)

According to Linz, what are the perils of presidentialism?

• Elections are a zero-sum game (one winner)

• Weaker partisan links with legislature, fewer coalition incentive, less cooperation, more potential gridlock

• rival sources of legitimacy: legislature and executive

• difficulties removing unpopular or corrupt leaders and lack of smooth executive succession

• Depends on the qualities of the individual leader

• More breakdown of democratic states in presidential regimes (especially Latin America)

• ‘While parliamentarism imparts flexibility to the political process, presidentialism makes it rather rigid’

How to distinguish between unitary and federal states?

In unitary states, the central government is in charge of running the entire country. In federations, the federal government but also state governments hold significant power.

Federal countries tend to be those that are larger, smaller countries (aside from China) tend to be unitary states

Arguments for decentralised government?

• Gives citizens multiple points of access, enhancing opportunities for citizen participation (monitory democracy)

• elected officials are held more accountable and responsive to citizens locally

• accountability at local level lessens corruption

• flexible policy learning

• managerial efficiency

• delivery of services can be tailored to local needs

• can accommodate cultural autonomy in divided societies (eg religion, language)

What are some key features of parliamentary government that differs it from presidential?

• prime minister is just a normal member of parliament

• indirect election (by legislative majority)

• executive: prime-minister and cabinet, collective executive

• drawn from and/or directly responsible to an elected legislature/parliament

• fused hierarchy of authority

• accountability

• legislative deadlocks within legislature

• may include a monarch/monarch’s representative but these don’t have significant day-to-day powers

• accountability comes from the party, the leader can be removed when confidence is lost

what are the key factors that differentiate a presidential from a parliamentary government?

• president enjoys a national constituency

• they are directly elected by the people and do not sit within congress

• they do not have direct accountability to the legislature: a lot more complicated to remove (ie impeachment)

• executive (president) and legislature separately elected

• distributed authority

• no direct accountability of executive to legislature

• purer ‘separation of powers’

• not removable by simple legislative vote

• personalised executive

• legislative deadlocks within legislature but also between legislature and executive

How do premier-presidential and president-parliamentary differ?

How does Lijphart differentiate presidential and parliamentary systems?

Presidential:

• elected for a fixed term of office

• popular (direct) election

• one person executive with subordinate cabinet

Parliamentary:

• Prime minister leads largest party

• selected by party not by voters

• Cabinet executive with collective responsibility

According to Dr Hefferman, why can’t a prime-minister be a president?

• Prime ministers have more power due to less checks and balances

• Prime ministers have more power

• Presidents sit outside and negotiate with their party members in an attept to convince them to vote a certain way

According to Chohan and Jacobs, why are presidents interchangeable with prime ministers?

“Prime-ministers are gravitating towards a resemblance to presidential leaders”

• personal control over power resources

• autonomy

• personalisation

According to Chohan and Jacobs what are the factors causing prime-ministers to resemble presidential leaders?

• Internationalisation of politics

• growth of the state

• institutional machinery around prime minister

• mass communications

Why does Schlesinger argue that the prime-minister and president are becoming interchangeable?

He quotes Nixon, “when the president does it, that means it’s not illegal”

WHY:

• internationalisation of politics

  • foreign relations

  • war-making powers

• Appointments functions

  • Courts

  • Bureaucracy

• Circumvention of separation of powers (accountability

  • Refusing to respond to subpoenas from the legislature

  • ‘Offshoring’ administrative activities

• At the national and foreign policy level, there aren’t many checks and balances on the president. Their power is constrained in the domestic but not the international.

Arguments against decentralised government?

• overlapping responsibilities reduces accountability

• geographic inequalities reinforced (eg natural resource revenue)

• maximises opportunities for corruption

• managerial duplication, coordination costs, bureacratic inefficiencies

• in divided societies, can encourage succession

• effects may depend upon state boundaries

Key examples of federalism?

COVID-19:

• State-led health response

• border closures

What is a legislature?

A multi-member representative body which considers public issues and either accepts, amends or rejects proposals for new laws and policies

How does Norton (2013) define the legislature?

the one that ‘makes the law’ or at least ‘approve[s] measures that will form the law

What are the two major sub-types of legislature

Congresses and Parliaments

What are the functions of legislatures?

• making laws

• place of deliberation

• source of governments

• role of legislatures in democratic development

• emphasis on ‘opposition rights’

• source of accountability

• representation

Some key areas of debate within representation within the legislature (ie parliament or congress)

Democratic theory tells us that legislatures should be elected by the people, which cements the ideas of popular rule and accountability. But who exactly are the people?

• Indigenous Australians couldn’t participate until 1962, prisoners, those under 18?

• Substantiative representation or collective representation? Should those affected by the policy be the only ones voting on it?

What are the various types of legislatures and electoral systems?

1. Parliament vs Congress

2. Majoritarian vs Consensus

3. Unicarmel vs Bicarmel

4. Compulsory Voting

5. Representation

What makes a legislature a ‘parliament’?

• The executive (Prime minister and cabinet) is drawn from and/or directly responsible to an elected parliament,

  • right to select and dismiss the government (confidence)

  • ‘fused’ executive

  • direct accountability (confidence)

  • legislative deadlocks within legislature

  • may include representation of monarch

What makes a legislature ‘a congress’?

• The executive (president) and congress are separately elected:

  • Distributed authority

  • No direct accountability of executive to legislature (purer separation of powers)

  • legislative deadlocks within legislature but also between legislature and executive

  • does not ‘select’ government, limited rights to dismiss

What is the primary difference between definining a parliamentary or presidential system?

A parliament or congress. Both have legislatures but:

• the sources and patterns of authority

• executive accountability mechanisms

• ‘veto points’ for legislation

• resilience and persistence of democratic regimes are greater in parliamentary systems (Linz)

How do majoritan representations work?

Party with the greatest support wins the seat

• based on majority or plurality

How does proportional representation work?

• proportion of seats will roughly equal the proportion of votes

What is majoritarianism usually characterised by?

• concentration of executive power in one party only

• executive-parliamentary relationships in which the executive is dominant

• two-party systems

• majoritarian, disproportional electoral systems

• a pluralist system of pressure groups

(exaggerates the results, making it easier to pass laws. for example, labour won just 30%, but this was majority)

What are consensus systems characterised by? ie Germany?

• power-sharing executives in multi-party coalitions, or minority governments that have to bargain to stay in power and pass laws

• balance of power between the executive and the parliament

• multi-party systems

• a corporatist pressure group system

• proportional representation

The majoritan system is favoured by those who believe:

• there ought to be a single party government able to pass its legislation without major compromise and subsequently be evaluated and held accountable on its performance at election time

the consensus model is favoured by those who like to see:

• broad participation in government; and tends to emphasise ‘inclusiveness, bargaining and compromise in government policy-making’

How does the voting system determine the electoral system?

How does first past the post electoral system work?

• Voters mark their single preferred candidate

whoever gets the most votes is elected regardless of whether they reach the majority

the more candidates, the fewer votes needed to get the highest number

used in the UK and former colonies like USA

• Has been criticised as undemocratic as government can form without majority of the vote

How does the preferential voting system work? (this is used in the lower house)

• At the core of this system is the idea the winner needs to obtain the majority of votes.

• The distribution of preferences comes into play when there are more than two candidates and no candidate has won an outright majority

• The candidate with the lowest primary vote is eliminated and their preferences allocated.

This continues until a candidate gains a majority of votes.

What is proportional representation?

What is the washminster system?

Australia combines majoritarian votes in the lower house (westminster) with proportional in the upper house (Washington system).

• Each electorate elects 1 MP who sits in the house of reps → leader of the party controls a majority in the house of reps becomes PM

What is unicameral legislature?

• Earliest (non-democratic) parliaments were unicameral

What is a bicameral parliament?

• Two houses/chambers

• Majority of legislatures (60%)

• No point if they are identical in composition

What is the difference between bicameral and unicameral legislature?

◦ Two elected houses elected by the same voters via different rule; e.g., local geographic communities for one house and a larger community (region; nation) for the other house.
◦ Democratic election for one house and non-
democratic selection for the other:
◦ People v aristocracy
◦ Conservatism
◦ Expertise
◦ Federalism

How does the strength of bicamerialism vary?

There are three main factors:

• congruence of composition (slightly different pattern of people → more power)

• symmetry (of powers)

• legitimacy (of second house)

Australian houses:

• incongruent, symmetrical, legitimate

• strong bicamerialism like Australia leads to the problems of deadlocks

• Weak bicameralism leads to the problem of relevance

Why is the size of a congress or parliament significant?

A key issue of representation, deliberation, accountability.

• Relative to population (representation) but other considerations, eg policy capacity, communication between members

How long are presidents/politicians elected for?

In Australia, the typical length is from 3-6 years.

The length of a term corresponds with the frequency of elections

• in making this decision, the need to balance accountability with time to properly legislate a program of action.

What are the advantages of compulsory voting?

• electoral outcomes based on participation of all citizens

• greater representation in policy making of those groups that would be less likely to vote if voluntary

  • less money needed to get people out to vote

disadvantages of compulsory voting?

• political parties don’t need to mobilise voters

• lazy political parties

• little incentive to recruit party members

advantages of voluntary voting?

• right not to vote

• parties need to mobilise voters

Disadvantages of voluntary voting

• certain groups disproportionately don’t turn out to vote including;

  • young people

  • ethnic minorities

  • lower-socio economic status

• parties more likely to appeal to extreme views

• groups that don’t vote are less likely to be represented in policy making

What are some approaches to improving women’s representation?

1. do nothing - rely on broad social trends (approach taken by libs)

2. voluntary party quotas - parties place quotas on their own parties

3. parliamentary legislative quotas

According to Linz, why does presidentialism present higher risk of political instability and regime collapse?

in electoral democracies with presidential regimes, both parliaments and presidents have rival sources of popular legitimacy and authority, making it difficult to resolve disputes.

Presidents hold office for a fixed term, reducing flexibility.

Presidential elections are winner take all, raising the stakes and generating weak incentives for the losers to accept the legitimacy of the outcome.

And the fusion of the offices of head of state and head of the government may reduce restraints on political leaders arising from checks and balances.