1. Parliaments, Presidents, and Bureaucracy

2. Parliamentary Government
Only vote citizen casts is for member of parliament
Parliament is only elected body
Executive power is lodged with a cabinet
Cabinet can fail or resign at any time
Prime minister can force new elections

3. Head of State and Cabinet
Heads of state are merely symbolic
Constitutional monarchs
“President”
Coalition government
What’s good? What’s bad?

4. Effects of Parliament Public debate Scrutiny Oversight
Question time
Source of executive

5. Advantages/Disadvantages
Government can respond directly because power is unified
Lines of responsibility are clear
Disadvantages
Few protections for a minority
Can produce unstable government

6. Presidential Government
Legislature and executive are elected independently of each other
Parties are more loosely unified
No guarantee that president’s party will also hold legislature

7. Differences Policy leadership more clearly lodged with president
Responsibility for policy more difficult to identify in presidential
Comprehensive policy more difficult in presidential
Recruitment of leaders differs
Harder to control president
Process is less flexible in presidential
Constitutional review more important in presidential

8. Skills of Presidents Proficiency as public communicator
Organizational capacity
Political skill
Vision
Cognitive style
Emotional intelligence

9. Public Administration
We need people who are not directly involved in politics in the sense that they share in making major decisions but who are involved in the construction and implementation of the policies that carry out those decisions
A significant part of the governmental power of any state us if necessity not under close political control
Street-level bureaucracy

10. “Good” P.A.
Honest, accurate translation of political leaders’ decisions into more specifically designed policies
Flexibility in dealing with special cases at the point of delivery
Non-arbitrary use of flexibility
Feedback of expert advice; active imagination and assertive inquiry on the part of administrators
Efficiency

11. Bureaucracy One way to organize the public administration
Weber’s characteristics
Members appointed and promoted based on their qualifications
Special requirements of training or experience
Administrative procedures are standardized
Hierarchical command structure
Shielded from day-to-day political pressures

12. Problems and Changes
Difficulties in evaluating public administrators v. in private business
Requirement that bureaucrats be shielded from politics
Office of ombudsman
Freedom of information laws
Interference by political leaders
Pressure from public opinion
Representative bureaucracy