Page 173 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes appointment or a foreign treaty made by the President was rejected by the Senate, or that a veto
exercised by the President was overridden by the second attempt of the Congress in passing the
same bill.
3. Likewise, in the financial sphere, the British Prime Minister is more powerful than the American
President. The budget prepared by the Cabinet must be passed by the Parliament otherwise it
would amount to the defeat of the ministry. The Prime Minister sees to it that his financial
proposals are passed and all cut motions tabled by the Opposition are defeated. Thus, the
budget is passed by the Parliament in the same form as described by the Prime Minister. Different
from this, the budget submitted by the president to the congress may and may not be passedin
in exactly the same from. It is subjected to serious criticism in the House as well as in the Senate
and quite often we find that several amendments are passed the change the shape of the original
budget to a considerable extent. Though the President may make use of some shrewd political
tactics to have his budget passed, it is certain that he would not be able to do what the Prime
Minister does to save his government.
4. The American President is more powerful than the British Prime Minister so far as his relationship
with the party is concerned. In Britain there is a very Strong party discipline and no leader,
even the Prime Minister, can flout it. The rules of the party bind all. In this way, the Prime
Minister acts as an authorised spokesman of the party. He scrupulously tries to follow the rules
of the party as he knows that his very existence in office depends upon the support of his party.
Different from this, party system In the United States is a very loose affair and, the hands of the
President are not tied by the constraints of his being a nun of the party that had nominated him.
5. Finally, there are some directions in which the American President is more powerful than the
British Prime Minister. The latter is not the head of the State, while the former is. Thus, while
the latter has several important things done by the monarch as he can not do them himself, the
former does by virtue of being the head of the State. Thus, the American President may exercise
his prerogative of mercy and thereby grant pardon, reprieve or amnesty. He may adjourn the
Congress in the event of disagreement between both houses in this regard. He may also take
extraordinary steps to meet national crises by virtue of being the Head of his state.
What it all reveals is that both are more as well as less powerful than each other in certain respects.
The reason for this should be discovered in different kinds of political organisations as well as in
varying forms of political cultures. The entire study under this head may be epitomised in this
statement: While the British king reigns and his Prime Minister rules; the American President rules
as well as reigns though without wearing the crown. As President Theodre Roosevelt once said that
his position ‘is almost like that of a King and Prime Minister reeled into one’.
The President of France

The President of the Fifth Republic of France, as already pointed out, is neither like a constitutional
monarch of Britain, nor is he a replica of the American chief executive; he stands between the nominal
sovereign of the United Kingdom (so far as his theoretical position is concerned) and the real executive
of the United States with a considerably greater amount of tilt in favour of the latter. The reason for
this may certainly be traced in the serious problems with which the nation was confronted on the eve
of the termination of the Fourth Republic. The framers “wished to give the President the prestige and
the prerogatives that would enable him to provide for the continuity of the state, to cement the bonds
between France and the former colonies of the French union, and to supervise the functioning of the
Constitution. The President is the ‘keystone of the arch of the new Republic’-he is both the symbol
and the instrument of reinforced executive authority.”
Election: The French Constitution provides that the President shall be elected indirectly by an electoral
college for a period of seven now 5 years vide an amendment of 2000 years. The idea of direct election
was rejected in view of the ‘past mistakes’ which had enabled Napoleon I and Napoleon III to overturn
the then democratic governments. Hence, it was provided that the President shall be elected by an
electoral college of approximately 80,000 electors. Though composed in a highly complicated manner,
this electoral college consisted of (a) grand electors by right, being members of the Parliament, local

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