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legislature, executive and judiciary. Whether a between the legislature and the executive. We can
government is parliamentary or presidential compare the two systems of power under the
system of power, depends on the type of relations following points :
Parliamentary System of Power Presidential System of Power
1. In a parliamentary system of power, the head 1. In a presidential system of power, the
of the state and the head of the government president is the real executive.
are two different people; the head of the state
has only nominal powers and the head of the
government has the real powers.
2. In a parliamentary system of power, the 2. In a presidential system of power, the
head of the government is a member of the president is not a member of the legislature
legislature and is answerable to the legislature. and is not answerable to the legislature.
3. In a parliamentary system of power, the head 3. In a presidential government, the president
of the government remains in the office so remains in the office for a fixed term and
long he enjoys the confidence of the cannot be removed from his office except by
legislature and can be removed from his impeachment.
office by majority vote.
Both of parliamentary and Unitary or Federal System of Power
presidential forms of government
A unitary government functions at one tier, that is,
are good and are working all powers are centralised in a single union
successfully in different countries.
government. The powers of the union government
India and Britain are good
are absolute. However, in a federal government,
examples of parliamentary form of Rajendra Prasad there are two tiers of authority—the federal
government; while America and
government at the centre and the provincial
Brazil are good examples of governments in the provinces (states). We can
presidential form of government.
compare the two types of government under the
following points :
Jawaharlal Nehru
Unitary System of Power Federal System of Power
1. In a unitary system of power, all powers are 1. In a federal system of power, the powers are
vested in the union. divided between the union and the provinces.
2. In a unitary system of power, the Constitution 2. In a federal system of power, the Constitution is
may or may not be written. written. All laws made in the country have to
be in conformance with the Constitution.
3. In a unitary system of power, the judiciary 3. The judiciary is supreme in a federal system of
may or may not be supreme. It works power. It interprets the laws made by the federal
according to the provisions that may have and provincial governments. It also settles any
been made for it. disputes arising between federal and provinces,
and between/among provinces.
A unitary government is effective when the government. We can find unitary governments in
territory under its control is small; but when the Britain and China; and federal governments in
territory is large, it is better to have a federal America and India.
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