PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM (UK):         PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM (USA):

Constitutionally, the legisla-    The legislature and the execu-
tive and executive powers of      tive have separate constitional
government are vested in the      grants of authority.  The Con-
elective, lower chamber of the    stitution grants one set of
national legislature.  There      powers to Congress, powers
is a FUSION, or CONCENTRATION,    which are primarily legislative
of legislative and executive      in character.  The Constitution
powers in the House of Com-       grants another set of powers to
mons, thelower and more pow-      the President, powers which are
erful chamber of Partiament.      mainly executive.  Powers are
                                  PARTITIONED, rather than fused.

The top executive authority       Under the Constitution, the
is a part of the legislature.     legislature and the executive
The Prime Minister and other      are institutionally separate
Cabinet members simultaneously    and largely independent
occupy the top executive of-      branches of government.  The
fices in the government and       President and other executive
hold seats in Parliament,         officers are constitutionally
speaking and voting on meas-      excluded from the legislature.
ures under consideration in       That is, they are not permitted
their respective chambers.        to hold seats in either house
Under the Constitution, the       house of Congress at the same
Prime Minister is the clearly     time that they hold posts in
recognized leader of the ma-      the executive branch.
jority party in the Commons.

The top executive authority       The President, the top execu-
is not elected separately from    tive authority, is elected sep-
and independently of the leg-     arately from and independently
islature.  The Prime Minister     of the members of Congress.
and most of the other members     While presidential and congres-
of the Cabinet are elected        sional elections are held at
from parliamentary election       the same time and in the same
districts as members of the       polling booths, the presiden-
House of Commons.  The Com-       tial ballot is entirely differ-
mons, in effect, chooses from     ent from the U.S. House and
among its own members the         Senate ballots.  Rather than
Prime Minister and most other     being elected as a member of
Cabinet ministers, selecting a    the legislature from a single
few ministers from the House      local election district, the
of Lords.                         President, through the medium
                                  of the Electoral College, is
                                  elected by the nation's voters
                                  as the chief executive of the
                                  entire U.S.A.

The clearly recignized chief      A candidate's election to the
leader of the political party     office of President does not
winning a majority of the         depend on which political party
seats in the House of Commons     wins a majority in either or
becomes Prime Minister.  Other    both houses of Congress; the
leaders of the majority party     candidate's winning the presi-
in the Commons also become        dential election does not re-
members of the Cabinet.  The      quire victory of his party in
Prime Minister and other Cab-     the congressional elections.
inet members remain in office,    The President may be of one
as the top executive authori-     party, and the opposition party
ty, only so long as they have     may hold a majority of the
the confidence and support of     seats in one or both houses of
a majority in the House of        Congress.  Since the President
Commons. If the Cabinet loses     is elected to a fixed term of
a vote of confidence in the       office, his tenure and preroga-
Commons, there are available      tives as the nation's chief ex-
two alternative courses of ac-    ecutive do not depend on con-
tion:  (1) The Cabinet members    tinuing majority support in the
may jointly resign--from the      legislature.  Legally, a simple
Cabinet, but not from Parlia-     majority in Congress cannot
ment.  (1) The Prime Minister     force the President to resign.
may advise the Monarch to dis-    In short, the Constitution pro-
solve Parliament and call a       vides the chief executive with
national election.  The power     a separate and independent pow-
and tenure of the Cabinet is      er base--a power base separate
based squarely on continuing      from and independent of that of
majority support in the House     the legislature.
of Commons.

The Cabinet is directly re-       The President is directly and
sponsible to the House of Com-    primarily responsible to the
mons.  The Cabinet is the         voters, not to Congress.  The
agent, or instrument, of the      chief executive and the legis-
Commons and is therefore di-      lature are coordinate organs
rectly accountable to that        of government--i.e., govern-
body.  The Prime Minister, AS     mental organs equal in rank,
THE PRIME MINISTER, is not di-    neither being the agent or sub-
rectly responsible to the vot-    ordinate of the other.
ers of the United Kingdom.

The Prime Minister is head of     The President is both chief of
government, while the Monarch     state and head of government,
is chief of state.  The Mon-      performing the ceremonial func-
arch performs the ceremonial      tions of chief of state as well
functions of symbolic leader      as the policy and administra-
and ruler of the nation.  The     tive leadership functions of
Prime Minister, as head of        head of government.
government, is the principal
active political leader in the
country and the leading factor
in the shaping of public poli-
cy and in the supervision and
direction of policy adminis-
tration, or implementation.

The political party that has a    Control of the principal organs
majority in the lower chamber     of government may be divided
of Parliament also controls       between rival political par-
the top executive authority.      ties, with control of the exec-
As long as the country has a      utive being in the hands of one
strong two-party system and       party and with control of one
the leading party has a clear     or both houses of the legisla-
and secure majority in the        ture being in the hands of the
House of Commons, there is no     opposition party.
possibility of divided party
control of the legislative and
executive organs of govern-
ment.

The government is character-      The government is characterized
ized by a single, unbroken        by multiple and fragmented
line of political authority       lines of political authority
from the voters through the       and responsibility.
legislature to the executive
and a single, unbroken line of
political responsibility from
the executive through the leg-
islature to the voters.

Most constitutional democracies in the world today are parliamentary systems. All modern constitutional monarchies are parliamentary systems. So are most modern constitutional republics.

The governmental system of the U.S.A., historically and traditionally, has been the one significant example of a presidential system. Since the establishment of the Fifth French Republic in 1958, France has had a system of government with both presidential and parliamentary features. However, the powers of the President under the 1958 De Gaulle Constitution are so overwhelming that the contemporary French government may be accurately referred to as a presidential system.