Forms of Government: Presidential and Parliamentary; Unitary and Federal

Forms of government can be classified on two main axes:

• Relationship between the legislature and the executive: parliamentary, presidential, semi-presidential (hybrid) and directorial/collegial.

• Distribution of power between the centre and units: unitary, federal, and quasi-federal or confederal.

Older classification: Aristotle classified by number of rulers and their purpose (monarchy, aristocracy, polity; and degenerate forms – tyranny, oligarchy, democracy). Modern comparative law uses the functional classification above.

Meaning: The executive (Cabinet/Council of Ministers) is drawn from the legislature, is collectively responsible to it, and remains in office as long as it enjoys the confidence of the lower house.

Key features:

• Dual executive: a nominal head (Monarch/President) and a real executive (Prime Minister and Cabinet).

• Fusion of powers: ministers are members of the legislature.

• Collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers; individual responsibility of each minister.

• Executive can be removed by a vote of no confidence; the executive can advise dissolution of the lower house.

• Prime Minister is leader of the majority party or coalition.

• Party discipline and the concept of an Opposition (in the UK, "His Majesty's Loyal Opposition" with a shadow cabinet).

• Flexible and responsive but may produce instability in coalitions.

Thinkers: Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (1867) – distinguished the dignified and efficient parts of the constitution; described the Cabinet as "a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens" the legislative to the executive. A.V. Dicey – parliamentary sovereignty and conventions. Ivor Jennings – Cabinet Government, The Law and the Constitution.

Examples: United Kingdom (the model – Westminster model), India, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany (chancellor system), Italy.

Meaning: The executive power is vested in a President who is both head of state and head of government, elected independently of the legislature for a fixed term, and not responsible to the legislature for his tenure (removal only by impeachment).

Key features:

• Single executive – President.

• Strict separation of powers and checks and balances.

• Fixed tenure; the President cannot dissolve the legislature, and the legislature cannot remove him by a no-confidence vote.

• Cabinet members are not members of the legislature; they are secretaries/advisors appointed by the President (in the USA, with Senate confirmation).

• Stable executive but risk of deadlock/divided government (Juan Linz argued that presidential systems are more prone to democratic breakdown).

Examples: USA (the model), Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, Philippines, Nigeria.

U.S. specifics: Article II vests executive power in the President. The President is elected indirectly by the Electoral College. Removal by impeachment (House impeaches; Senate tries; two-thirds majority to convict). The 22nd Amendment limits the President to two terms. Veto power with congressional override by two-thirds.

• Semi-presidential system: A directly elected President with real powers coexists with a Prime Minister and Cabinet responsible to the legislature. Maurice Duverger coined the term. France under the Fifth Republic (1958) is the standard example. Cohabitation occurs when the President and the Prime Minister come from rival political camps (France: 1986–88, 1993–95, 1997–2002).

• Switzerland (directorial/collegial executive): The Federal Council of seven members is elected by the Federal Assembly for a fixed four-year term and cannot be dismissed by it. The presidency rotates annually among the seven members (first among equals). It is neither purely parliamentary nor presidential.

• Parliamentary monarchy vs parliamentary republic: UK (monarchy) and Germany/India (republic).

Meaning: Sovereignty is concentrated in a central government; sub-units (local bodies, provinces) exist only by the will of the centre and can be created, altered or abolished by it.

Features:

• Single legislature with supreme power; no constitutional division of powers.

• Single citizenship, and uniform laws and courts.

• Local bodies exercise delegated powers.

• Can be flexible, efficient and cost-effective; suitable for small, homogeneous states.

• Devolution (UK: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) does not make the UK federal because Parliament remains sovereign and can legally repeal devolution statutes. The UK is commonly described as a unitary state with devolution.

Examples: UK, France (although decentralised since the 1982 reforms), Japan, Italy, China (unitary by constitution), Sri Lanka.

Meaning: Powers are constitutionally divided between a national government and regional units (states, provinces, cantons), each being supreme within its own sphere.

Essential features (K.C. Wheare's Federal Government, 1946):

1. A written constitution (generally rigid) – supremacy of the Constitution.

2. Division of powers between centre and units.

3. An independent judiciary to interpret the Constitution and settle disputes (guardian of federalism).

4. Rigid amendment procedure (units usually participate in amendment).

5. Dual government with each level acting directly on the citizen.

6. Usually a bicameral legislature with the second chamber representing the units (Senate, Council of States, Ständerat).

K.C. Wheare's definition: the federal principle is the method of dividing powers so that the general and regional governments are each, within a sphere, co-ordinate and independent. He called the Indian Constitution quasi-federal (federal in form but unitary in spirit).

Other characterisations of India: Ivor Jennings – "a federation with a strong centralising tendency". Morris-Jones – "bargaining federalism". Granville Austin – "cooperative federalism". Supreme Court in S.R. Bommai v Union of India (1994) – federalism is part of the basic structure; the Constitution is federal in structure with a unitary bias.

Classification:

• Coming-together federations (independent states unite): USA, Switzerland, Australia – units are strong; residuary powers with units.

• Holding-together federations (a unitary state decentralises to preserve unity): India, Belgium – centre is stronger; residuary powers with the centre. (This terminology is associated with Alfred Stepan.)

• Confederation: a loose alliance of sovereign states where units retain sovereignty (e.g., the USA under the Articles of Confederation, 1781–89; Switzerland before 1848; the EU is often described as sui generis, with confederal features).