POL 2104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Presidential System, Fusion Of Powers, Unicameralism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 2104
• Professor: Joseph Roman

Document Summary

The role of legislatures (they act skeptics of executive decisions) Democracy = disagreement: representative functions, achieved by representation by population, legitimization function, aggregates and articulates public opinion, scrutinizes the executive, arena of deliberation, perform legislative oversight by analyzing bills, usually through committees. These committees need resources (without resources, they cannot function) The role of the executive: regardless of the system that one is discussing, all executives do the following, set priorities, make decisions, resolve crises, ensure policies are implemented. No: presidentialization thesis, centralization of political parties, most bills are introduced by the executive, some leaders appear stronger than others, the executive continues to carefully poll members of the legislature, mutually dependent power relations. It depends on the country one is talking about. Pros: policymaking is efficient, continuity, greater flexibility. Cons: multiple parties sitting in the legislature leads to instability, the legislature becomes a rubber stamp during a majority government.