Name

Course Name

Instructor

Date

Introduction

Leadership styles of countries influence their development. Good leadership ensures rights and liberty of citizens, upholds justice, and boosts citizens’ participation in legislation process. Authoritarian leadership is detrimental to national development as all power and decision-making in the state is by one individual. This deters development. Badly governed governments have a negative influence on global development; therefore, adopting a democratic government is a commendable step in the country governance due to its benefits to the nation.

New Political Institutions

The transition to democracy will result in many structural and procedural changes in the country change, including the county’s political institutions. The new political institutions such as the electorate and form of government set up must be voluntaristic, whereby the people contribute to their outcome. Centralization of these is essential in order to promote public policy, rather than personal interests (Lijphart 163-164).

Political Parties and Type of Electoral System

Democracies must have functioning political parties and electorate systems as these are the foundation of democratic rule. In this country, a multi-party system is the best approach for political parties. Choosing this ensures that citizens can determine whom they want to govern the country. Unlike a two-party system, a multi-party system gives full representation to the people, especially considering the ethnic diversity of this country (Lijphart 168-170). In this country therefore, multi-party will help in addressing the issue of multi-ethnicity.

The most appropriate electorate system for this new democracy is the proportional representation. This allows for the political equality, minority participation, a participatory leadership, and the consideration of the preferences of voters in the polity.  Proportional electorate therefore enhances equality and fairness. Unlike majority system, which focuses on the effectiveness of governance only, representation system focuses on effective governance as well as the representation of the minority in the polity. Proportional representation leads to the satisfaction of citizens in their country governance. This system is in alignment with democracy as it allows for personal choice, which is an individual’s right, and allows voting for personalities, and not manifestos. It is also a simple system, which is easy to understand. In addition, this formula has an integrating and concentrating effect for electors and society. The electioneering process must be conducted carefully by the legislature, which must also ensure effective electoral laws, as these determine the parliamentary regime. These laws should be enacted carefully. Democracy in the electoral system will ensure transparency and participation of all citizens in the electioneering process, which is essential for national development (Linz 127-132).

Form of Government

There are varieties of options of government forms this country may choose from. These are presidential, parliamentarianism, and semi-presidentialism. However, being a young democracy falling in the second wave of democracy, the most suitable form of government for this country is parliamentarianism. This is the best choice for democracies, which are fragile, young, and divided. In this country, multi-ethnicity serves a role of tearing democracy apart. Therefore, parliamentarianism will help alleviate the negative effects of multi-ethnicity. In the world today, the strongly established democracies use parliamentarianism. Authoritarian states today are known to have once used or still use presidentialism. Having experienced authoritarian leadership, if this country chooses presidentialism, it will plunge back into authoritarian, thereby not having solved their problems. Parliamentary system is known for strengthening democracy and promoting inclusion of people in legislation.

In the parliamentary system, this country will need to adopt a new structure of parliamentarianism. First, the three components of the parliamentary system should be developed. These are the executive, the legislature, and the president.  The legislature and the executive are closely linked. The executive will comprise the cabinet ministers, who are headed by the prime minister, who is commonly referred to as first among equals. This depicts the element of power sharing. The president is a separate head of the head, with different roles from those of the prime minister. Of the two types of parliamentary system: the majority and the minority and coalition government, this country should adopt the majority parliamentary model. In this model, it is the ruling party, which has a secure majority (Mainwaring 200-206).

Benefits of choosing the majority parliamentary model

Parliamentary systems guarantee the unitary element. The structure of this government form promotes a centralized government, through the executive and legislative, which are close to fusion and support each other. In presidential systems, these two only balance and check one another. The unitary element of parliamentary system will ensure the accountability of the prime minister through the vote of no confidence, which may be acted on him in case of incompetence. Any member of parliament who has noted the prime minister’s incompetence will introduce the vote of no-confidence. If this motion passes, the prime minister is compelled to leave office and is replaced by another member of a dominant party, whom the parliament chooses.

The unitary aspect of parliamentary system will also ensure stability, decisiveness, and efficiency of the different parties due to the intra-party unity. Here, one party will be in control of the legislature and the executive. The chief whip in the government’s whipping system will be responsible for party discipline during voting, as he will serve as a link between the executive and the government. It is also easy to pass legislation because members of parliament vote along their party line.

The centralized government of parliamentary system acts effectively. The central government control important political issues such as taxation, defence, welfare, and foreign affairs. On the other hand, the sub-central government controls less important political issues such as local welfare. In parliamentary systems today, the line between “high politics” and “low politics” is highly diminishing, therefore making the leadership roles to be more centralized.

Finally, a parliamentary system will ensure sovereignty of the parliament. Here, no one can overrule the decisions made by the parliament. This in turn will enhance the stability of the democracy. This prevents confusion as in the cases where decisions are made and changed frequently. Sovereignty also regulates the power exercised by the president and prime minister. Unlike presidentialism, this form of government ensures accountability of elected leaders as incompetent leaders can be removed from office through the vote of no-confidence. A new constitution, with democratic elements must be formulated and promulgated. This bases on the views of the people and its passing depends on peoples ‘votes. y do not get above the law (Horowitz 144-148).

 

Costs of parliamentary systems

Parliamentary sovereignty restricts judicial review. This is because when decisions are made by parliament, they are final and no other body can review them. The aspect of part intra-unity is also costly as the dominant party may exercise more power and become domineering over the others. In addition, the elaborate whipping system may lead to motions being passed by the dominant party, while the opposition can do nothing much.  Finally, unitary systems may not favour the local authorities due to the highly centralized government. The central government has the powers to abolish local governments; therefore, the local authorities have limited power to make policies making them vulnerable to stagnation.

Conclusion

Changing from authoritarianism to democracy is a positive step in country governance. However, democracy must be sustained after transition. With a parliamentary form of government, all policies will be centred on the people to avoid discrimination and negative ethnicity. Choosing a proportional electoral system will ensure free and fair elections. Political reforms through policies will clear messes caused by authoritarianism. Additionally, leaders must show political will and commitment to the goal of democracy by allocating sufficient funds, which will address the various needs of implementing democracy in the country. Leaders and citizens in ensuring sustainable democracy must play a collective role. No form of government is perfect. The unitary government in parliamentary systems, which is adopted by this country, has few imbalances in some aspects, mainly lack of legislative review and separate legislature and executive. Nonetheless, a parliamentary government is most suitable for new democracies as it guarantees stability, efficiency, and decisiveness in governance, in addition to it being highly accountable to its citizens.

 

Works Cited

Horowitz, Donald. “Comparing Democratic Systems,” in Diamond and Plattner (eds), The

Global Resurgence of Democracy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. 143-149.

Lijphart, Arend. “Constitutional Choices for New Democracies,” in Diamond and Plattner (eds),

The Global Resurgence of Democracy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. 162-174.

Linz, Juan. “The Perils of Presidentialism,” in Diamond and Plattner (eds), The Global

Resurgence of Democracy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. 124-142.

Mainwaring, Scott. “Presidentialism, Multipartism and Democracy,” Comparative Political

Studies, 26.2(1993): 198-228.

 

Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.

[order_calculator]