What are the main differences betwwen parliamentary and presidential systems of government? What implications do those differences have for both policy making and democracy itself?

Implications for Policy Making and Democracy

Whether a regime is parliamentary or presidential has a major impact on significant aspects of political life : how executive power is formed relationships between the legislative and the executive branches relationships between the executive and the political parties , the nature of the political parties , what happens when the executive loses support , and arguably even prospects for stable democracy and patterns of domination

The proponents of presidential claim that presidential systems claim that such systems ensure that the president 's power is a legitimate one

because the president if , in most cases , elected directly by the people The United States follows a different system in which the president is elected by an electoral college but is still considered to be popularly elected . Parliamentary executives can not claim to be elected via a direct vote of the people . Separation of powers is another benefit which the presidential system provides because it established the executive branch and the legislative as two distinct structures which allows each body to supervise and oversee the other and prevents abuse of the system . In a parliamentary system , the executive is not separate from the legislature , reducing the chances of criticism or scrutiny , unless a formal condemnation in the form of a vote of no confidence takes place Hence , in a parliamentary system , a prime minister 's unethical deeds or instances of misconduct might never be discovered as Woodrow Wyatt (former British Member of Parliament ) said while writing about the famous Watergate scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon "don 't think a Watergate couldn 't happen here , you just wouldn 't hear about it

In a parliamentary system , even though the option of a vote of no confidence is available , it is an option resorted to only in extreme cases . It...