Democracy has in the 20th and 21st century grown in...

Democracy has in the 20th and 21st century grown in popularity, which has been credited due to the ‘waves of democracy’, which has been caused by a variety of reasons all over the world. However because of the growth of democracy, it has led to debate between academics as to whether or not presidentialism has had a positive or negative effect on new and developing democracies. In this essay it will discuss the effect presidentialism has had on democracy as a system of government. A brief background of democracy will be spoken about, especially what affect the ‘waves of democracy’ has had on new democratic systems. Moreover the affect that institutional design plays in maintaining a stable political system, in terms of representation†¦show more content†¦With this wave of democracy came the redesign of political institution. The institutional design of a presidentialism and parliamentary system is also hugely important during the development of new democracies. The process of designing institutions is the first step is providing a platform for those who are involved in policy making. It can also led to creating incentivise and As mentioned previously Linz is a noted political and social scientist, who main areas of expertise is in creating a greater understanding of how democracy, totalitarianism and authoritarianism systems operate. Linz view on presidentialism was that this type of political system was less likely than a parliamentary system to be able to maintain a stable democratic system. This was because in presidential systems, the executive has considerably more constitutional powers, than the executive in a parliamentary system. Linz had this beliefs as he believed a president held too much power, as a president was not only the executive power holder, but was also perceived as the symbolic head of state (Linz, 1990). Further evidence of presidential power described by Linz in a presidentialism system, was the control they possessed over the composition of their cabinet and their administration. Furthermore even though a president is elected by the voters, presidents do not require a vote of confidence by the states parliament as they are independent. This was a major concern in the view