POL S 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Dilbert Principle, Presidential System, Peter Principle
Document Summary
The potential for concentrating power into the hands of the single person who acts as both head of state and gov. If checks and balances don"t work president can do whatever he wants. Occurs when checks and balances work too well, and nothing gets done (van belle"s definition) Presidential system was designed to not do much and be slow. Parliamentary systems have elections every 3-5 years decided by prime minister. The group of professional administrators who actually run the government and provide the services that the government provides. Compared to machine: every part of machine has to do what they are meant to do for machine to work properly. Every supervisor should only been in charge of a few people. Hiring, promoting, or firing must be based on merit only. Bureaucracy is largest part of democracy but is not democratic. Need clear separation of political and administrative. Every part of gov needs to do job the way designed.
