The Presidential system of government is in practice or operation in many countries. The countries include the United States, a country that is unarguably the model for that system of government. Indeed Nigeria, with minor modifications, adopted the American type presidential system of government in 1979.
The United States’ constitution under Article II provided for the establishment of the office of a strong president. As pointed out by Alexander Hamilton, a popular delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Article II was aimed towards “energy in the Executive”. The constitution did so in an effort to overcome the natural stalemate that was built into the bicameral legislature as well as into the separation of powers among the three organs of government.
The President of the United States exercises Executive powers as the Head of State; Head of government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces. The arrangement almost equally applies to Nigeria. One major difference is that the Vice President in the United States is also the President of the Senate, a position he occupies by the fact of his being the incumbent Vice President. He seldom attends the sittings of the upper house except on the rare occasion when he is expected to use his casting vote to break a tie in voting in the Senate. His Nigerian counterpart is usually first and foremost an elected member of the Senate before he is elected from among his colleagues as the presiding officer of the Senate.
Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE) 3.4
List factors responsible for success of presidential system
In this unit we began with the treatment of the presidential system of government by defining it and stating its basic features. We also discussed the advantages and the advantages of this system of government. We finally used the United States and Nigeria as case studies to illustrate the practice of the presidential system of government.
The President of the United States exercises Executive powers as the Head of State; Head of government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces. The arrangement almost equally applies to Nigeria. One major difference is that the Vice President in the United States is also the President of the Senate, a position he occupies by the fact of his being the incumbent Vice President. He seldom attends the sittings of the upper house except on the rare occasion when he is expected to use his casting vote to break a tie in voting in the Senate. His Nigerian counterpart is usually first and foremost an elected member of the Senate before he is elected from among his colleagues as the presiding officer of the Senate.
Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE) 3.4
List factors responsible for success of presidential system
4.0 SUMMARY
In this unit we began with the treatment of the presidential system of government by defining it and stating its basic features. We also discussed the advantages and the advantages of this system of government. We finally used the United States and Nigeria as case studies to illustrate the practice of the presidential system of government.
5.0 CONCLUSION
The American experience of over two hundred years has shown that the presidential system of government can be a success story. But the Nigerian experience since 1979 when the system was first adopted does not present a cheery or similar story. For this reason there has been clamour for Nigeria to return to the parliamentary system of government which collapsed fatally in 1966. In spite of its many advantages it is claimed by the opponents of the model that the presidential system of government is too expensive to maintain, especially by less developed countries and that it cannot readily guarantee a responsive, or provide responsible government.
The American experience of over two hundred years has shown that the presidential system of government can be a success story. But the Nigerian experience since 1979 when the system was first adopted does not present a cheery or similar story. For this reason there has been clamour for Nigeria to return to the parliamentary system of government which collapsed fatally in 1966. In spite of its many advantages it is claimed by the opponents of the model that the presidential system of government is too expensive to maintain, especially by less developed countries and that it cannot readily guarantee a responsive, or provide responsible government.
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