Democracy For Every?
... ideals. Although a popular trend towards new democracies has been developing since the end of the Second World War, democratic institutions and ideals cannot claim to stand for the true desires of every nation. Most industrialized nations of the 20th century seem to have embraced some form of a democratic system as their central governmental system. Of these nations, there are two basic models of democracy: the first being a government modeled after the British parliamentary structure and the second being a government designed to mirror the American presidential system. Under the presidential system, the head of state and head of government is the same person, and he or she controls the duties of the executive branch. Citizens directly elect the president who serves a term limit of a fixed number of years. The Constitution commissions the President with formal the power of appointment, the ability to negotiate treaties, the option to veto legislation, and the honor of acting as commander-in-chief of the military. Yet, since each of these powers can be directly checked by another branch, the formal powers of the President are limited. As a check against the President’s power of appointment, Congress has the advice and consent duty, allowing any presidential nomination to be denied. While the President does have the ability to negotiate treaties, negotiation remains worthless without congressional approval. The real power of a treaty lies not in the agreed upon conditions, but in the actual approval which validates those conditions. Even the all-powerful presidential veto is not so powerful given the Senate’s ability to override it by a two-thirds majority vote. Thus, the presidential model consists of a system of checks and balances and a clearly defined separation of powers. A person may only hold one office in either the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of government, leaving no...