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An insightful analysis of the separation of powers and parliamentarism, drawing from the works of John Locke and Charles de Montesquieu. It discusses the importance of these concepts in government and their impact on the relationships between the legislative and executive branches. The document also explores the differences between parliamentary systems, such as the UK, France, and Italy, and their respective electoral systems.
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Part I: Governmental architecture Chapter 1: Horizontal structuring: separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers Section 1: Separation of powers theory Parag 1: First modern exponent: John Locke, 1632 – 1704 Social contract. Introduced the notion of separation of powers and social contract to hope that we are respected and that our rights are upheld. He speaks of three powers: legislative power, executive power, and federative power Legislative power: power to write laws that reflect the law of nature Executive power: administer force when the legislative power requires so. Power to apply legislative power to specific cases Federative power: the power to act internationally. In other words it is an aspect of the executive power as it relates to international relations. For locke, the judicial is a subtype of the executive branch Locke distinguishes the functions/powers from the institution/organ. Once we distinguish the function/power from the organ/institution on the other hand, we are then able to understand that one particular function may be shared among different organs. Parag 2: Second modern exponent: Charles de Montesquieu, 1689 - 1755 Montesquieu clearly distinguishes the three powers that are familiar to us: legislative, executive, and jud icial powers Legislative: The power that is responsible for enacting those rules which operate impersonally and generally Executive: It’s the power to execute the legislation that was enacted by the legislative power. It is also the one that establishes public security and that enters in international relationships with other nations Judicial: Punishes criminals or resolves disputes among individuals. Montesquieu said we must separate powers because it is a way to preserve ourselves from abusive power. If it is a single power, our liberty would be in danger. A single power would be likely to create privileges for itself and its supporters and would then be partial when its interest or those of its supporters are at stake. Hence, the solution to avoiding this is to divide power into three different orders and assign them to 3 different orders/ institutions. Creates a system of checks and balances. Section 2 : Parliamentarism
Parag 1: The traditional tripartite classification of the relationships between executive and legislative branches First is legislative system, parliamentarism The second one is presidentialism, mutual independence Third element in the tripartite classification is semi-parliamentarism where we are dealing with a hybrid model where some of its features resemble the presidential system and others resemble the legislative system. Examples: Presidential: USA Legislative system: UK Semi presidential system: France Called conventional classification of regimes: -Subject to criticism -Ex. Richard Albert, The fusion of presidentialism and parliamentary 2009 When we pay close attention to whats happening in political regimes we notive -Importation -Transplant -Called cross importation where you go build off your ideal type and pick and chose from other ideal types. The conclusion once we’ve made that observation is that we need to call into question the relevance of the tripartite system. Parag 2: Parliamentary features Section 1: Separation of powers theory Parag 2: Parliamentary features I) Legislative and executive relationship A) Origin/Selection of government B) Accountability of government to Parliament To maintain power, government must be accountable. In a parliament there is a vote of no confidence to take out a leader that can be done. For example, the liberal party can vote of no confidence Trudeau C) Dissolution of Parliament
takes the advantage of being directly elected (ex: conventional gvt in France ⇒ 1792- 1795 : third assembly after the revolution ⇒ legislature that created a commitee over public safety *some ppl refer indistinctly to parliamentary and assembly regimes II) Significance of electoral system on parliamentary systems A) Electoral systems = plays a significant role in shaping the regime itself different electoral systems: what makes it capable of this?
for CLOSED : the list is preset by the party itself, the party officials are going to decide who they’ve chosen to represent. the people are to vote for/against the candidates chosen by the parties. b2) Open party list: voter chooses party and candidate → the voter is more in control the party will have listed some names ex: canada party leadership races B) Effect of electoral systems on parliamentarism What is the effect of a given electoral system of parliamentarianism? -We have to note that when we deal with the plurality majority system, according to a french scholar (maurice duverger) the chances of a stable government are higher and a two party system is likely to be in place. -Because you need to get that majority in order to govern, you typically have two main parties which form to alternate power. In proportional representation, the point though is to say that you have a multi-party system where all parties get representation in parliament but it is quite likely that in terms of governing ability and efficiency in government, we will be faced with instability. ex: italian case → typical of this