Head of government

The head of government is the leader of the government or cabinet.

• In a parliamentary system, the head of government is known as a premier or prime minister.
• In presidental systems or , the head of government may be the same person as the head of state which is usually titled president in a republic.
• In some semi-presidental systems, the head of government is a separate premier or prime minister who is answerable to the president or an absolute or semi-absolute monarch rather than to parliament. In others, the prime minister may be answerable to both the head of state and parliament. Such is the case in the French Fifth Republic (1958-present), the President appoints a prime minister but must choose someone who can get government business through the National Assembly. Where the opposition controls the National Assembly, the President is in effect forced to choose a prime minister from among the opposition. In such occasions, known as Cohabitation, an opposition-orientated government controls internal state policy, with the President restricting himself largely to foreign affairs, though there too he must work with the government.

A Parliamentary Prime Minister

In parliamentary systems, government functions along the following lines:

• The formation of a government answerable to parliament by a member (sometimes the leader) of the party or parties;

• Full answerability of that government to parliament through
  • the ability of parliament to vote no confidence;
  • the requirement that the government gain and hold Supply;
  • answerability for its actions to whichever house (almost invariably the democratically elected upper house) controls Supply

All of these directly impact on the prime ministerial role, often requiring that the Prime Minister play a 'day to day' role on the floor of the House, answering questions and defending 'his' government on the 'floor of the House'. In contrast, prime ministers in semi-presidential systems may be required to play less of a role in the functioning of parliament.

Appointing a Prime Minister in a Parliamentary System

In some states, a head of government is elected by parliament. In many, they are commissioned to form a government by the head of state, on the basis of the strength of party support in the lower (democratically elected) house. Many parliamentary systems require ministers to serve in parliament, while others ban ministers from sitting in parliament, they resigning on becoming ministers.

Removing a Prime Minister in a Parliamentary System

Prime Ministers may exit power in a parliamentary system by

• resignation, following
  • defeat in a general election
  • defeat in a parliamentary vote on a major issue (Loss of Supply, Loss of Confidence, defeat in a major parliamentary vote on an important Bill.

Alternatively a prime minister, if so defeated, may seek a parliamentary dissolution from the head of state.

• dismissal
  

Some constitutions allow a head of state or a governor-general to dismiss a prime minister, though its use can be controversial, as occured in 1975 when then Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed prime minister Gough Whitlam (an unprecedented act) over Whitlam's failure to gain Supply in the upper house (a legal requirement but which the Senate by convention did not insist on), and his resulting decision not to resign or seek a dissolution.

First Among Equals or Dominating the Cabinet?

Constitutions differ in how many powers they give to prime ministership; indeed some older constitutions (Australia's 1900 text, Belgium's 1830 text) never mentioned the office of prime minister at all, the office becoming a de facto reality without a formal constitutional status. Some constitutions make a prime minister primus inter pares (first among equals) and that remains the practical reality in places like Finland and Belgium. Other states however, make their prime minister a central and dominant figure within the cabinet system; Ireland's Taoiseach (the Irish language word, meaning 'The Leader', which is translated as 'prime minister') for example alone can decide when to seek a parliamentary dissolution, in contrast to other countries where this is a cabinet decision, with the Prime Minister just one member voting on the suggestion.) Under Britain's unwritten constitution, the Prime Minister's role has evolved, based often on the personal appeal and strength of character, as contrasted between, for example, Winston Churchill as against Clement Atlee, Margaret Thatcher as against John Major.

In a number of states the allegation has been made that the increased personalisation of leadership, a product in part on media coverage of politics that focuses on the leader and his or her mandate, rather than on parliament, and also on the increasing centralisation of power in the hands of the prime minister, has led to accusations of prime ministers becoming themselves semi-presidential figures. Such allegations have been made against two recent British prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. It was made against then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau and against the then Chancellor of West Germany and later Germany Helmut Kohl.

Origins of Parliamentary Democracy: The Westminister Model

The origins of the modern concept of prime ministerial government go back to the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1800). In theory, power resided in the monarch, who chaired cabinet and chose ministers. In reality, King George I's inability to speak english led the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the leading minister, literally the prime or first minister. The gradual democratisation of parliament with the broading of the voting franchise, increased parliament's role in controlling government, and in deciding whom the King could ask to form a government. By the nineteenth century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice invariably deciding who was prime minister and the complexion of the government.

Other countries gradually adopted what came to be called the Westminster Model of government, with an executive answerable to parliament, but exercising powers nominally vested in the head of state, in the name of the head of state. Hence the use of phrases like Her Majesty's government or His Excellency's government. Such a system became particularly prevalent in older British dominions, many of whom had their constitutions enacted by the British parliament. Examples include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Irish Free State and the Union of South Africa.

France: Swinging between Presidential & Parliamentary Systems

France swung between different styles of presidential, semi-presidential and parliamentary systems of government; parliamentary systems under Louis XVIII, Charles X, the July Monarchy under Louis Philippe, King of the French and the Third Republic and Fourth Republic, though the extent of full parliamentary control differed in each, from one extreme under Charles X (a strong head of state) to full parliamentary control (under the Third Republic). Napoleon III offered attempts at some degree of parliamentary control of the executive, though few regarded his regime as genuinely parliamentary and democratic. A presidential system existed under the short-lived Second Republic. The modern Fifth Republic system combines aspects of presidentialism and parliamentarianism.

The Spread of Parliamentarism in Europe

Parliamentary systems of democratic government became particularly prevalent in the new democracies that appeared throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War One, notably in the new Austrian Republic, Weimar Germany, etc., through some had been moving hestitantly in that direction in the later nineteenth century. Many early twentieth century versions however failed through political instability and/or the interventions of heads of state, notably King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy's failure to back his government when facing the threat posed by Benito Mussolini in 1922, or the support given by King Alfonso XIII of Spain to a prime minister using dictatorial powers in the 1930s. Interventions by various Kings of Greece undermined democratic governments on a number of occasions.

The Prime Minister

The title Prime Minister is often used to describe the head of government, though often constitutions use different titles. Titles used include

• Head of the Government;
• President of the Cabinet;
• President of the Executive Council;
• President of the Council of Ministers;
• President of the Council of State;
• Taoiseach.

Fully parliamentary systems exist in among other states;

• Australien
• Österreich
• Belgien
• Kanada
• Dänemark
• Deutschland
• Indien
• Republic of Ireland
• Italien
• Luxemburg
• The Netherlands
• Neuseeland
• Norway (from 1884)
• Portugal
• Spanien
• Vereinigtes Königreich

Many states in Africa, having started off with parliamentary systems (eg. Tanganyika, Zimbabwe) opted for presidential systems, arguing that 'dominant presidential leaders' more accurately match their native political culture than western-style parliamentary systems.

Additional Reading

Jean Blondel & Ferdinand Muller-Rommel Cabinets in Western Europe (ISBN 0333462092)