Compere and contrast the presidential and parliamentary institutional Essay

Compere and contrast the presidential and parliamentary institutional structures in Canada and the U.S includes executive, legislature and judiciary - Essay Example Every country in the world operates either a parliamentary system of governance, or a presidential one. In history, these two governance structures can be traced back to the United Kingdom and the United States of America (Antonio, 2007). While the former practices the parliamentary system, the latter is governed by a presidential system. So what are the similarities and differences between the two? We shall first discuss the parliamentary system followed by the presidential system. We shall then highlight their similarities and differences. The parliamentary system of governance, as earlier mentioned, is a system that has been successfully implemented in the United Kingdom, as well as in some of its former colonies. Historically, under this system, the law was understood to be any word that came from either the King or the queen. Power was vested in either of the two and their word was the law. However, this changed over time. The English Civil War is feted for effecting changes such as the shifting of power from the King or Queen to the Parliament. As such, the royalty position is now ceremonial (Bergman, 2006). So how does this structure of governance operate? Under this system, the Parliament is vested with the power of controlling all the duties, deliberations, and functions of Government. They thus create a system of checks and balances to monitor the functions of Government. Members of Parliament (MPs), who are also representatives of the people, are elected into office by the people. The elected members take up executive functions in government. The Prime Minister, who is the head of government, is entirely dependent on Parliament when making decisions such as the selection of Ministers from the 446 MPs who are elected to Parliament (Antonio, 2007). Ministers are selected based on their loyalty to their respective