A parliamentary form of government is characterized by the direct responsibility of executive to legislature which lasts as long as it enjoys the confidence of legislature. The parliamentary government system which first began in England (Great Britain) is also called as ‘Cabinet government and responsible government’.
1. Nominal Executive: The presence of a nominal executive is- a primary feature of parliamentary government. Though all powers of the state are vested in his name by the constitution, it is in fact exercised by the real executive consisting of Prime minister and council of ministers. For example, the Queen of England and the President of India are the nominal executives.
2. Collective responsibility: A parliamentary government is directly responsible to legislature and stays in office as long as it enjoys confidence of the lower house. A decision taken by cabinet is binding on ministers and they should defend it in and out of parliament. Together we sink or sail” is the key statement of parliamentary government.
3. Individual Responsibility: Each minister will be in charge of a ministry and is wholly responsible for all decisions of the ministry to the legislature. Parliamentary government and individual responsibility go hand in hand.
4. Political Homogeneity: In a parliamentary government, all ministers belong to the same party or alliance having common policies, programmes, values and beliefs and work under a common minimum programme (CMP). As a result, it is not difficult to secure cooperation and coordination. In case, a government consists of divergent policies and beliefs, frequent quarrels, squabbling, and infighting brings down the government. It defeats the very purpose of government formation.
5. Membership of parliament: In a parliamentary government, a minister must be a member of either house of parliament. On becoming a minister he must become a member of either house within 180 days. Otherwise, he will have to step down from office. This is to ensure individual responsibility to the parliament.
6. Oath of Secrecy: It is the responsibility as well as duty of the cabinet to protect official secrets. Cabinet decision should not become public without authorization from parliament. Ministers are administered the ‘oath of secrecy’ to maintain secrecy of cabinet decisions. The purpose is to avoid any person or a group taking undue advantage of the leaked information.
7. Leadership of the Prime Minister: In parliamentary government, Prime Minister is the backbone of the cabinet. He acts as the spokesperson of the government by defending it in and out of the government. He acts as the advisor to the president in summoning, proroguing and dissolving the parliament. The Prime minister exercises independence in appointing ministers, expanding the ministry and allocation of portfolios.
8. Effective opposition: Opposition party is called “the government in waiting”. In parliamentary government, opposition parties follow the day today administration and bring before the people the failures of the government from time to time. During elections, they seek mandate on the basis of the failures of the government.
Thus, opposition acts’ as a watchdog of the government. In fact, in Britain, the shadow cabinet functions just like the government but without powers. They too have separate departments to monitor developments in respective areas.
a. Presidential Government: In Presidential government, the Executive is not responsible to the legislature. It is based on the principle of ‘ Separation of powers’. It is known as non-responsible system or fixed executive system. E.g. USA.
1. Separation of powers: The Presidential government is based on Montesquieu concept of “separation of powers”. The concept of separation powers contends that the legislature, executive and judiciary must be independent of each other and function independently. Legislature performs the task of law making, executive law implementation and judiciary interpretation of laws.
2. Checks and Balances: Presidential government is based on checks and balances. Though the legislature, executive and judiciary function independently, complete separation is not only desirable but also impractical. To maintain the exercise of power balanced, controlled and widespread each organ is given a fair degree of power in one another’* functional area.
3. Executive is not responsible to legislature: The president in U.*.A is directly elected by the people and hence is not responsible to legislature! The president can’t participate in the proceedings of the congress. He can neither initiate a bill nor pilots it. The President is not accountable to anyone but the constitution and the people.
4. Real Executive: In presidential government, the president is directly elected by the people. The president is not only the real executive but also the head of government. He is directly responsible for all happenings in the country.
5. Secretaries directly responsible to president: The secretaries known as presidents’. ‘Brain Trust’ are appointed by the president and stay in office as long as they enjoy the confidence of the president. The President may remove any secretary without assigning any reason. Secretaries are neither responsible to congress nor to the people but to the president. The President can hire or **** secretaries.
6. Fixed Tenure: The President does not depend on Congress for his survival. He is directly elected for a ** of 4 years and lasts his full term. He cannot be removed from office except on grounds of inefficiency and proven misbehavior through an impeachment motion.
