The President and the Executive Power: the Analysis of the Types of Correlation between the Institutions

Abstract

The history of the republican form of government is marked by the constant search for the ideal structural and functional correlation between the presidencies and the executive branch. The head of the state has wielded executive power since the beginnings of the separation of powers. This explains why some presidential authorities can be associated with or identified by the executive branch. At the same time, there are fundamental critical distinctions between the ways of jurisdictional and functional interrelationships between the presidency and the executive branch in the republican forms of government. This issue currently remains the matter of an academic discussion. The president is the head of the executive branch in the presidential form of government, whereas the head of the state does not have executive powers in parliamentary republics. In a semi-presidential republic, however, the position of the president is somewhere in between these two polar ones: the head of the state is functionally integrated into the executive branch but is not a part of it. The analysis of the functional weaknesses of the presidential and parliamentary republics leads to the conclusion that semipresidential republics ensure ideal interrelationship between the president and the executive power. As far as the above-mentioned aspect is concerned, semi-presidential republics have advantages over classical ones since they can ensure the realization of the president’s full institutional potential, to combine the executive branch efficiency with its parliamentary responsibilities, and to prevent the possibility of concentrating all executive power in the hands of one subject be it a president or prime minister.