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Krotoszynski, Ronald J. --- "The Separation of Legislative and Executive Powers" [2011] ELECD 373; in Ginsburg, Tom; Dixon, Rosalind (eds), "Comparative Constitutional Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Comparative Constitutional Law

Editor(s): Ginsburg, Tom; Dixon, Rosalind

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848445390

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: The Separation of Legislative and Executive Powers

Author(s): Krotoszynski, Ronald J.

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

13. The separation of legislative and executive powers
Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr.



From a global perspective, separating and dividing legislative and executive power consti-
tutes a very low structural priority. Parliamentary systems of government, which predominate
across the globe (Ackerman 2000, pp. 645­6), invariably unite legislative and executive
authority in the same hands. Professor Sartori counts only thirty nations that have adopted a
presidential, as opposed to parliamentary, system of government (Sartori 1994, p. 107).
The performance of parliamentary systems of government, although far from perfect,
generally has been considerably better than presidential and semi-presidential systems featur-
ing divided executive and legislative authority (Sartori 1994). Presidential systems are
`mostly concentrated in Latin America' and `the record of presidentially governed countries
is ­ aside from the United States ­ quite dismal' (id.; see Ackerman 2000, pp. 645­6 (`There
are about thirty countries, mostly in Latin America, that have adopted American-style
systems. All of them, without exception, have succumbed to the Linzian nightmare [the
collapse of constitutional government in favor of direct presidential or military control of the
government] at one time or another, often repeatedly.')). Far more nations have adopted and
maintain a parliamentary system of government, which lacks the separation of legislative and
executive powers.
Most political scientists and political theorists favor the parliamentary system because of
its obvious efficiency advantages and its tendency to promote stable government (at least
when contrasted with presidential forms of government) (Ackerman 2000). Thus, if dividing
and separating legislative and executive power ...