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Under pure presidentialism: president has the right to retain ministers of his or her choosing
regardless of the composition of the congress
1st – in presidential systems the president and assembly have competing claims to legitimacy;
both are popularly elected and the origin and survival of each are independent from the other
2nd – the fixed term of the president’s office introduces a rigidity that is less favorable to
democracy than the flexibility offered by parliamentary systems, where governments depend on
the ongoing confidence of the assembly
3rd – presidentialism “introduces a strong element of zero-sum game into democratic politics
with rules that tend toward a ‘winner-take all’ outcome; in contrast, in parliamentary systems
“power-sharing and coalition-forming are fairly common, and incumbents are accordingly
attentive to the demands and interests of even the smaller parties.”
4th – the style of presidential politics is less propitious for democracy than the style of
parliamentary politics
5th – political outsiders are more likely to win the chief executive office in presidential systems,
with potentially destabilizing effects
The rigidity of presidentialism, created by the fixed term of office, can be a liability. With the
fixed term it’s difficult to get rid of unpopular or inept presidents w/o the system’s breaking
down, and it is constitutionally barred in many countries to reelect a good president.
JUAN LINZ, PRESIDENTIALISM, AND DEMOCRACY: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL
SCOTT MAINWARING AND MATTHEW S. SHUGART
We take issue with Linz’s assertion that presidentialism induces more of a winner-takes-all
approach to politics than does parliamentarism.
- Presidentialism is predicated upon a system of checks and balances. Such checks and
balances usually inhibit winner-takes-all tendencies; indeed, they’re designed precisely to
limit the possibility that the winner would take all.
- If it loses the presidency, a party or coalition may still control congress, allowing it to
block some presidential initiatives.