Forms of representative democracy
A key issue in considering the workings of modern democracies is the
nature of those governments and the mechanisms for enforcing
responsibility of governments to the people. The complex relation-
ships between the elected legislature, the government and the
electorate are summarised briefly in Box 6.4 and explored in more
detail in succeeding sections.BOX 6.4 FORMS OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
The two major types of representative democratic constitution to be
found in the world today are the parliamentary and presidential
systems. The major features of these are outlined in Table 6.2, which
is based on the work of Verney (1959). Parliamentary systems are
found not only in Britain and the many Commonwealth countries
which have retained the ‘Westminster model’ (Tansey and Kermode,142 STATES
Presidential
Popularly elected head of state and government, independent
legislature and judiciary, e.g. USA, Latin America.Parliamentary
Head of state appoints head of government responsible to legislature,
e.g. UK, Sweden, Italy.Hybrid
Directly elected head of state appoints head of government respon-
sible to legislature, e.g. France, Russia.Consociational
Minorities have constitutional right to representation in government,
e.g. Switzerland, Northern Ireland.One-party
One party legally controls government, e.g. China, North Korea,
Tanzania (before 1992).