The Politics of Modern
States
GI6009

Lecture 13
Governments and
Policy-Making

Aims

The aims of this lecture are to
explore:

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Types of government
The nature of Presidential systems
The nature of Parliamentary systems
Strengths and weaknesses of the
different systems

What is Government?
 

 So far in this module, we have looked at the
state in general – yet it is, of course,
comprised of various institutions (inc. the
army, police and civil service)
 One of the most important of these is the
government – and though state and
government are often treated as synonyms,
they are not the same! For example:
 The state encompasses the whole population
and territory within its borders – while the
government is composed of only a limited
number of people, and exists in specific
locations
 The state is (more-or-less) permanent –
whereas governments come and go
 The state has ‘absolute’, ‘unlimited’

What
is
Government?
 
 Yet what exactly government means is open to
debate
 Some view it very broadly, as referring to all
public institutions that make or implement
political decisions – including the executive,
legislative and judicial branches; and at every
level – central, regional, local
 e.g. this is how government is understood in
the US
 Yet others view it more narrowly, as referring
purely to the central political executive
 e.g. this is how it is often used in the UK – only
those who occupy ministerial posts: the Prime
Minister, Cabinet and Junior Ministers (approx.
100 MPs)

What is Government?
 

 As we have seen before … the development of
the modern state took many centuries. The
same is true of modern systems of
government
 Today’s governments emerged through the
gradual, piecemeal ‘splitting-off’ of state
functions from a traditionally undivided
central authority – typically, a monarch
 e.g. in England, we can go right back to the
establishment of the first Parliament (11th c.)
and Magna Carta (1215) to see the beginnings
of this
 Over time, a broadly accepted notion has
arisen that power should be dispersed – e.g.
executive, legislative and judicial powers
(though there are great national variations as

What is Government?
 

 Thus, whether we include all three elements
(executive, legislative and judicial) or only the
first within our definition of ‘government’, the
key point is that few systems today – even
authoritarian ones – vest all authority within a
single institution
 At the same time, in practice, the tendency
has been for power to flow to the executive in
most modern states, regardless of
constitutional set-ups
 Thus, executive branches tend to dominate in
most states - e.g. they typically control foreign
policy; and domestically, they often dominate
policy-making (drafting or proposing major
laws) vis-à-vis legislatures
 However, particularly interesting to reflect on

What is Government?
 

 The basic choice is between two systems –
normally with the following features:
Parliamentary
 Head of govt. and head of state are
different
 The Prime Minister (PM) is not directly
elected
 The PM is politically accountable to
Parliament
Presidential
 Head of govt. and head of state are the
same
 The President is directly (or semi-directly)
elected

What is Government?
 

 However, it is also worth mentioning three
variants, which mix elements of both:
Semi-Presidentialism
 In which a President exists alongside a Prime
Minister and Parliament
 France is the modern archetype, though many
others now exist – e.g. Russia, Ukraine,
Algeria, DRC
 Unlike in ‘pure’ Parliamentary systems, there
is an elected head of state, who is more than
just a symbolic figure – e.g. often appointing
the Cabinet
 Yet it differs from ‘pure’ Presidentialism in that
the Cabi...

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