Chapter 10

Comparative Politics IIIGoverning Democracies:

Executives, Legislatures, and Judiciaries

Executives

• Presidents• Elected

• Prime Ministers• Selected from

its own ranks

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, U.S. President George W. Bush, and Portugese Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso,

European Parliaments• “Forming a

government” in Britain• Monarch invites the

leader of the largest party in the House of Commons to become prime minister and “form a government”

Queen Elizabeth II

European Parliaments

• “Constructive no confidence” in Germany• Chancellor of Germany

stronger than British prime minister

• Head of largest party in the lower house (Bundestag)

– Ousted only if the Bundestag votes in a replacement cabinet

– “Constructive no confidence” succeeded only once in 1982

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder

European Parliaments

• “Cohabitation” in France• Semipresidential

system• President elected for

7 years• Parliament elected

for 5 years

Premier Lionel Jospin and President Jacques Chirac

– President appoints premier from majority party in parliament

The Clinton Impeachment• Snapshot of American

politics:

• Moralistic• Example of morality

• Divided• 2/3 pro Clinton

• Partisan• Division on party lines

• Personality-driven• Normal (immature)• “Slick Willy”

• Public• Open to media

• Legalistic• Legal details

• Expensive• $40 million +

• Institutionalized• According to Constitution

• Distasteful• Partisn politics run amok

Roles of the Executive• Head of state

• Symbol of nation• Chief of government

• Responsible for making and carrying out policy decisions

• Party chief• Leaders of political party

• Commander in chief• Commands military

establishment• Most dangerous power

• Chief diplomat• Grant diplomatic

recognition• Negotiate trade deals• Executive agreements

• Dispenser of appointments• Patronage (3,000 jobs)

• Chief legislator• Law-making powers

Executive Leadership

• Hands-onCauses chief

executives to scatter and exhaust themselves

• Hands-off• Pay little attention to

crucial matters causing serious problems

• Rely on trusted subordinates

President Carter “Hands-On” Style of

leadership

Ronald Reagan with his horse "Little Man" at Rancho Del Cielo.

February, 1977.

Executive Leadership

• Middle Ground• Appeared to be

hands-off• Actually very active

• Preferred to let others take credit (or blame)

– “Hidden-hand presidency”

President Eisenhower

Barber’sPresidential Character

• Based on how much- presidents like political office- energy they put into it

Types of Presidential Character

• Active-positive• Enjoys being president and puts a lot of energy

into it. • Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush Sr.

• Active-negative• Real “meanies” in office• Lots of energy but don’t enjoy relaxed power• Johnson, Nixon

Types of Presidential Character• Passive-positive

• Like being president, but little energy

• Prefer to delegate matters to subordinates

• Taft, Harding, ReaganPassive-negative– Politicians drafted for the job, don’t relish it– Little energy– Coolidge, Eisenhower

General Eisenhower

Disabled Presidents

• Woodrow Wilson• Strokes, poor health• Treaty of Versailles

• Franklin D. Roosevelt• Heart Failure, hypertension

• John F. Kennedy• Addison’s disease

• Ronald Reagan• Assassination attempt

Ellen Axson Wilson

Psychology of Power• Classic 1936 work of

Harold Lasswell• Politicians start out mentally

unbalanced• Have unusual need for power and dominance• Normal people find politics uninteresting

Plato– Even sane people who become too powerful in

high office go crazy. • They have to because they can trust no one

Solution– Limit power and have mechanisms to remove

officeholders who abuse it.

Cabinets• Major executive

divisions called department in U.S., ministry in most of the rest of the world.

• Who serves in a cabinet?• Parliamentary systems• Presidential systems

• Rise of noncabinet advisers• Chief of Staff• National Security Adviser

U.S. Treasury Department transfers its law enforcement units, including the Customs Service and the Secret Service, to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, Treasury Secretary John Snow, and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson

Expecting Too Much?• Presidents and Prime Ministers are expected

to• Deliver economic growth with low unemployment

and low inflation• Be responsible for anything that goes wrong• Delegate to subordinates (“hands-off”)

• What matters is getting reelected• Personality counts more than policy• Symbols count more than performance

How Do We Safeguard Democracy?

Electoral Punishment!

Legislatures

Executive Roles• Head of state

• Top leader, but with only symbolic duties

• Queen of England• King of Sweden

Head of government– The real working executive

• Prime minister, premier, or chancellor– Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair– Germany Chancellor Angela D. Merkel

– United States– President is both head of state and head of

government.

Presidential Democracy• Separation of power

between executive and legislative branches

• President combines head of state with chief of government rolesExecutive not easily ousted by legislatureLess dependent on legislative majority

Parliamentary System• Fusion of power between

executive and legislative branches

• Head of state distinct from chief of government

• Chief political official (usually prime minister) easily ousted

• Cabinet members are members of parliament

Separation and Fusion of Power• Government

• In Europe, a given cabinet• U.S. “administration”

• Executive-legislative deadlockVote of confidence– Major vote in parliament on which government

stands or falls. – Can oust cabinet on a no-confidence vote

Immobilism– Inability of coalition governments to solve major

questions.

Coalition

• Multiparty alliance to form a government

When no one party has majority of seats in parliament

Legislative Chambers

• Bicameral• Parliament having

two chambers, upper and lower

• Unicameral• Parliament with one

chamber

The Committee System

• Real power of modern legislatures

• Screen much proposed legislationCan make or break a proposal Includes- Standing (permanent) committees- Special ad hoc committees- Subcommittees

A Closer Look at Legislatures

• Lawmaking• Pass laws, few originate

laws• Constituency work

Supervision and criticism of government– Keeping a critical eye on the executive

Education– Keep citizenry informed

Representation– Chief function to represent the people

Decline of Legislatures• Structural disadvantages

• Legislators obey party whips• U.S. lacks efficiency

• Lack of expertise• Must rely on experts

• Psychological disadvantages• A President can have charisma, but a legislature

cannot• “President worship”

Decline of Legislatures• The absentee problem• Lack of turnover• Dilemma of parliaments

• To get things done, power must be concentrated, as in the hands of a powerful executive.

• To keep things democratic, power must be dispersed, divided between an executive and a legislature.

Judiciaries

Types of Law

• Positive law• Written by humans and

accepted over time

Criminal law– Regulates the conduct of individuals, defines

crimes, and provides punishment for violations• Infractions• Misdemeanors• Felonies

• U.S. criminal law codified or statutory

Types of Law• Civil law

• Private matters brought to court by individuals, not by governments

• Marriage and divorce, inheritance

Constitutional law– Grows out of a country’s basic documents– U.S. Supreme Court interprets the Constitution– Judicial review of legislation

Types of Law

• Administrative law• Regulatory orders by

government agencies

International law– Guides relations among nations– Include treaties, authority, and customs– Reciprocity and consistency– No enforcement apparatus

Types of Law

• Common law• “Judge-made law”; old

decisions built up over the centuries

Code law– Laws arranged in books, usually updated Roman

lawCanon law– Laws of the Roman Catholic Church, based on

Roman law

The Roots of Law

• Higher law• Attributed to God or the

Creator and thus higher than laws made by humans

– People are “endowed by their Creator” with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…-- rights that no just government can take away.

Natural law– That which comes from nature, understood by

reasoning.

John Locke

U.S. Federal Court System

U.S. Supreme Court

Circuit Courts

District Courts

Diversity Jurisdiction:Litigants who are citizens of different states

State Court System

CA Supreme Court

Court of Appeals

Superior Courts

Adversary Process:Two sides: Plaintiff and Defendant

Judges

• Federal Judges• Nominated by President and appointed

with the advice and consent of the Senate• Position held during “good behavior”

• State Judges• Either popularly elected or appointed• Terms range up to 14 years

Comparing Courts• British court system

• Common law traditions• Divided into civil and criminal

branches– Judges

• All judges appointed by the Monarch on advice of prime minister

• Lifetime tenure• Lack power of judicial review

– No written constitution

– Lawyers• Barristers represent clients in court• Solicitors handle all other legal matters

Comparing Courts• European court system

• Based on French system• No separate civil/criminal divisions• Accused bears burden of proving innocence• Lawyers

• Court questions witnesses, not lawyers• Lawyers try to sway jury and show factual mistakes• Role not as vital as in U.S./British systems

Role of the Courts

• Judicial review- Marbury v. Madison (1803)• Supreme Court’s power to

review the constitutionality of laws

Political role– Appointment of judges– Impact on laws

Chief Justice John Marshall

Influences on Judges

• Geography• Outlook and background • Occupational background• Party affiliation• Conception of judicial role• Colleagues’ opinions• Public opinion

Warren Court

• Civil rights• Brown v. Bd. Of Ed of Topeka (1954)

• Reversed “separate but equal” doctrine• Ordered desegregation of schools

• Lombard v. Louisiana (1963)• Supported the sit-in

Warren Court• Criminal justice

• Mapp v. Ohio (1961)• Evidence seized without

warrant was inadmissible in state court

– Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)• Indigent defendants must be provided counsel

– Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)• Suspect could not be denied right to lawyer during

police questioning– Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

• Once detained by police, suspect must be told rights

Warren Court• Legislative

reapportionment• Outlawed

“gerrymandering”– Unequal representation denied citizens

their 14th Amendment rights– States must apply the principle of “one

person, one vote” in redrawing electoral lines

Post-Warren Courts

• Burger Court (1969 –1986)• 1978 Bakke Case

• Reverse discrimination• 1984 added “good faith exception” to the

Mapp rule• Rehnquist Court (1986-present)

• Burning of the American flag protected form of free speech

• Our current Supreme Court

“Even when laws have been

written down, they ought not always remain

unaltered.”-- Aristotle