World's states colored by systems of government: Parliamentary systems: Head of government is elected or nominated by and accountable to the legislature.
Presidential system: Head of government (president) is popularly elected and independent of the legislature.
Presidential republic
Hybrid systems:
Semi-presidential republic: Executive president is independent of the legislature; head of government is appointed by the president and is accountable to the legislature.
Assembly-independent republic: Head of government (president or directory) is elected by the legislature, but is not accountable to it.
Other systems:
Theocratic republic: Supreme Leader is both head of state and faith and holds significant executive and legislative power
Systems in which a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government. In some cases, the prime minister is also the leader of the legislature, while in other cases the executive branch is clearly separated from legislature (although the entire cabinet or individual ministers must step down in the case of a vote of no confidence).[1][2] The head of state is a monarch who normally only exercises their powers with the consent of the government, the people and/or their representatives (except in emergencies, e.g. a constitutional crisis or a political deadlock).[a]
In a parliamentary republic, the head of government is selected or nominated by the legislature and is also accountable to it. The head of state is usually called a president and (in full parliamentary republics) is separate from the head of government, serving a largely apolitical, ceremonial role. In these systems, the head of government is usually called the prime minister, chancellor or premier. In mixed republican systems and directorial republican systems, the head of government also serves as head of state and is usually titled president.
In some full parliamentary systems, the head of state is directly elected by voters. Under other classification systems, however, these systems may instead be classed as semi-presidential systems as presidents are always attached to a political party and may have broad powers (despite their weak presidency).[3] Full parliamentary republican systems with presidents being purely ceremonial and neutral with no broad powers usually do not have a directly elected head of state and instead often use either an electoral college or a vote in the legislature to appoint the president.
Parliamentary republics with directly elected ceremonial heads of state
A combined head of state and head of government in the form of an executive president is either elected by the legislature or by the voters from among candidates nominated by the legislature (in the case of Kiribati),[17] and they must maintain the confidence of the legislature to remain in office. In effect, "presidents" in this system function the same as prime ministers do in other parliamentary systems.
In presidential system, a president is both the head of state and head of government, and is elected and remains in office independently of the legislature. There is generally no prime minister, although if one exists, in most cases they serve purely at the discretion of the president.
The following countries have presidential systems where the post of prime minister (official title may vary) exists alongside that of the president. The president is still both the head of state and government and the prime minister's role is to mostly assist the president.
In a semi-presidential republic a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature. It differs from a parliamentary system in that it has an executive president independent from the legislature; and from the presidential system in that the cabinet, although named by the president, is responsible to the legislature, which may force the cabinet to resign through a motion of no confidence.[27][28][29][30]
President-parliamentary systems
In a president-parliamentary system, the prime minister and cabinet are dually accountable to the president and the legislature.[31]
Assembly-independent parliamentary republics with an executive president
A combined head of state and head of government (usually titled president) is elected by the legislature but is not held accountable to it (as is their cabinet), thus acting more independently from the legislature.[31] They may or may not also hold a seat in the legislature.
In a directorial republic, a council jointly exercises the powers of the head of government collectively. The council is elected by the parliament but is not subject to parliamentary confidence during its fixed term. The president who exercises the ceremonial roles of the head of state is a member of the directorial council in a primus inter pares (first among equals) capacity and has no powers over other members of the directory.
Iran combines the forms of a presidential republic, with a president elected by universal suffrage, and a theocracy, with a Supreme Leader who is ultimately responsible for state policy, chosen for life by the elected Assembly of Experts. Candidates for both the Assembly of Experts and the presidency are vetted by the appointed Guardian Council.
Specifically, monarchies in which the monarch's exercise of power is unconstrained by any substantive constitutional law. The monarch acts as both head of state and head of government.
A committee of the nation's military leaders controls the government for the duration of a state of emergency. Constitutional provisions for government are suspended in these states; constitutional forms of government are stated in parentheses.
A state governed as a single power in which the central government is ultimately supreme and any administrative divisions (sub-national units) exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states, 126 are governed as centralized unitary states, and an additional 40 are regionalized unitary states.
Centralized unitary states
States in which most power is exercised by the central government. What local authorities do exist have few powers.
States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to regional authorities, but where constitutional authority ultimately remains entirely at a national level.
States in which the national government shares power with regional governments with which it has legal or constitutional parity. The central government may or may not be (in theory) a creation of the regional governments.
↑ Some monarchs are given a limited number of discretionary reserve powers only to be used in certain circumstances in accordance with their responsibility to defend the constitution.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 One of fifteen constitutional monarchies which recognize the Monarch of the United Kingdom as head of state, who presides over an independent government. The Monarch is titled separately in each country (e.g. King of Australia), and notionally appoints a Governor-General (GG) to each country other than the United Kingdom to act as his representative. The prime minister (PM) is the active head of the executive branch of government and also leader of the legislature. These countries may be known as "Commonwealth realms". In many cases, the Governor-General or monarch has a lot more theoretical, or constitutional, powers than they actually exercise, except on the advice of elected officials, per constitutional convention. For example, the Constitution of Australia makes the GG the head of the executive branch (including commander-in-chief of the armed forces), although they seldom ever use this power, except on the advice of elected officials, especially the PM, which makes the PM the de facto head of government.[citation needed]
↑ Collective presidency consisting of three members; one for each major ethnic group.
↑ Despite having a collective head of state, Bosnia and Herzegovina's head of state is ceremonial, and as such is not executively governed by a directorial system.
↑ Their two-person head of state, the Captains Regent, serve for six month terms.
↑ Despite having a collective head of state, San Marino's head of state is ceremonial, and as such is not executively governed by a directorial system.
↑ The president is elected by the parliament and holds a parliamentary seat (as an ex-officio), much like a prime minister. If a vote of no confidence is successful and they do not resign, it triggers the dissolution of the legislature and new elections (per section 92 of the Constitution).
↑ The president is constitutionally obligated to dissolve parliament after a successful no-confidence motion against the government (article 106(6)) and new elections are called within 3 months (article 61).[18]
↑ Per the Constitution, Kiribati's president is elected by plurality voting after candidates for the presidency are nominated by the newly elected legislature. If a vote of no confidence against the president is successful, they are removed from office and the legislature stands dissolved (triggering a new election for it) in the interim a body known as the "Council of State" (comprising the chief justice, the president of the public service commission and speaker of the legislature) serves the functions of the presidency.
↑ According to constitution of Suriname the Parliament is the highest college of state, and that the government is accountable to parliament; Constitution Chapter XIII, Art. 117, paragraph 2. The parliament can also remove the president by majority vote based on article 74a, 82 of the constitution.[23]
↑ The President of Switzerland serves solely in a primus inter pares capacity amongst the Swiss Federal Council, Switzerland's seven-member cabinet which acts as both the head of state and the head of government, with the position traditionally rotating yearly among the members of the council in order of seniority.
↑ A federal absolute monarchy in which different monarchies or, in this case, sheikhdoms fulfill both the duty of president and prime minister, although in actuality they are monarchs.
↑ The Vatican is an elective absolute monarchy and a Roman Catholic theocracy; its monarch, the Pope, is the head of the global Roman Catholic Church. His power within the Vatican City State is unlimited by any constitution; however, as all its citizens and its residents are ordained Catholic clergy, members of the Swiss Guard, or their immediate family, they arguably have consented to obey the Pope or are minors. (Citizenship is jus officii, on the grounds of appointment to work in a certain capacity in the service of the Holy See and usually ceases upon cessation of the appointment. Citizenship is also extended to the spouse and children of a citizen, provided they are living together in the city; in practice, these are few in number, since the bulk of Vatican citizens are celibate Catholic clerics or religious. Some individuals are also authorized to reside in the city but do not qualify or choose not to request citizenship.)[46]
↑ Duverger (1980). "A New Political System Model: Semi-Presidential Government". European Journal of Political Research (quarterly). 8 (2): 165–187. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1980.tb00569.x. The concept of a semi-presidential form of government, as used here, is defined only by the content of the constitution. A political regime is considered semi-presidential if the constitution which established it combines three elements: (1) the president of the republic is elected by universal suffrage, (2) he possesses quite considerable powers; (3) he has opposite him, however, a prime minister and ministers who possess executive and governmental power and can stay in office only if the parliament does not show its opposition to them.
↑ Bahro, Horst; Bayerlein, Bernhard H.; Veser, Ernst[in German] (October 1998). "Duverger's concept: Semi-presidential government revisited". European Journal of Political Research (quarterly). 34 (2): 201–224. doi:10.1111/1475-6765.00405. S2CID153349701. The conventional analysis of government in democratic countries by political science and constitutional law starts from the traditional types of presidentialism and parliamentarism. There is, however, a general consensus that governments in the various countries work quite differently. This is why some authors have inserted distinctive features into their analytical approaches, at the same time maintaining the general dichotomy. Maurice Duverger, trying to explain the French Fifth Republic, found that this dichotomy was not adequate for this purpose. He therefore resorted to the concept of 'semi-presidential government': The characteristics of the concept are (Duverger 1974: 122, 1978: 28, 1980: 166): 1. the president of the republic is elected by universal suffrage, 2. he possesses quite considerable powers and 3. he has opposite him a prime minister who possesses executive and governmental powers and can stay in office only if parliament does not express its opposition to him.
↑ Veser, Ernst[in German] (23 September 1997). "Semi-Presidentialism-Duverger's Concept — A New Political System Model"(PDF). Department of Education, School of Education, University of Cologne, zh. pp.39–60. Retrieved 21 August 2017. Duhamel has developed the approach further: He stresses that the French construction does not correspond to either parliamentary or the presidential form of government, and then develops the distinction of 'système politique' and 'régime constitutionnel'. While the former comprises the exercise of power that results from the dominant institutional practice, the latter is the totality of the rules for the dominant institutional practice of power. In this way, France appears as 'presidentialist system' endowed with a 'semi-presidential regime' (1983: 587). By this standard, he recognizes Duverger's pléiade as semi-presidential regimes, as well as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania (1993: 87).
↑ Shugart, Matthew Søberg (December 2005). "Semi-Presidential Systems: Dual Executive And Mixed Authority Patterns"(PDF). French Politics. 3 (3): 323–351. doi:10.1057/palgrave.fp.8200087. Retrieved 21 August 2017. Even if the president has no discretion in the forming of cabinets or the right to dissolve parliament, his or her constitutional authority can be regarded as 'quite considerable' in Duverger's sense if cabinet legislation approved in parliament can be blocked by the people's elected agent. Such powers are especially relevant if an extraordinary majority is required to override a veto, as in Mongolia, Poland, and Senegal. In these cases, while the government is fully accountable to Parliament, it cannot legislate without taking the potentially different policy preferences of the president into account.
↑ Stewart, Dona J. (2013). The Middle East Today: Political, Geographical and Cultural Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge. p.155. ISBN978-0415782432.
↑ Day, Alan John (1996). Political Parties of The World. Stockton. p.599. ISBN1561591440.
↑ Chris Buckley and Adam Wu (10 March 2018). "Ending Term Limits for China's Xi Is a Big Deal. Here's Why. – Is the presidency powerful in China?". New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2019. In China, the political job that matters most is the general secretary of the Communist Party. The party controls the military and domestic security forces and sets the policies that the government carries out. China's presidency lacks the authority of the American and French presidencies.
↑ United Nations General AssemblySession 67 Resolution19.Status of Palestine in the United NationsA/RES/67/19 29 November 2012. Retrieved accessdate. "Taking into consideration that the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in accordance with a decision by the Palestine National Council, is entrusted with the powers and responsibilities of the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine"
↑ For a more detailed discussion, see John McCormick, European Union Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), Chapters 1 and 2.
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![World's states colored by systems of government:
Parliamentary systems: Head of government is elected or nominated by and accountable to the legislature.
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Constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial monarch
Parliamentary republic with a ceremonial president
Parliamentary republic with an executive president
Presidential system: Head of government (president) is popularly elected and independent of the legislature.
Presidential republic
Hybrid systems:
Semi-presidential republic: Executive president is independent of the legislature; head of government is appointed by the president and is accountable to the legislature.
Assembly-independent republic: Head of government (president or directory) is elected by the legislature, but is not accountable to it.
Other systems:
Theocratic republic: Supreme Leader is both head of state and faith and holds significant executive and legislative power
Semi-constitutional monarchy: Monarch holds significant executive or legislative power.
Absolute monarchy: Monarch has unlimited power.
One-party state: Power is constitutionally linked to a single political party.
Military junta: Committee of military leaders controls the government; constitutional provisions are suspended.
Governments with no constitutional basis: No constitutionally defined basis to current regime, i.e., provisional governments or Islamic theocracies.
Dependent territories or places without governments
Note: this chart represents the de jure
systems of government, not the de facto
degree of democracy.
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