POL SCI 50 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Parliamentary System, Presidential System
Document Summary
Cabinet formation is the process by which the cabinet is selected. It is either hand picked by the president and approved by the legislature or directly selected by the legislature. Not only is cabinet formation important because it helps us to distinguish between presidential and parliamentary systems of government, but also because it helps us predict the type of people that will compose it. If the cabinet is hand picked by the president, then the cabinet members are usually non-political actors such as friends and supporters of the president or people he owes favors to. In a parliamentary system, because the legislature directly picks the cabinet, the members tend to be senior party politicians who have worked their way up through the system. The cabinet minister is a member of the cabinet whose responsibility it is to head one of the various governmental departments. In a presidential system, the cabinet members are directly selected by the.
