A head of state, whether bearing the title president, king or queen, or some other, may carry a wide variety of powers. Presidential government is a system which gives a strong role to the head of the executive who participates fully in its actual decision-making processes. It is therefore to be contrasted with systems where the head of state has purely ceremonial duties, or merely has the function of appointing a prime minister or other official to head the government. Forms of presidential government vary but in many countries, including the USA and France, the president is elected separately from the legislature.
In systems which are marked by a separation of powers, such as the USA, presidential government is sometimes seen as a constitutional distortion because power is meant to be balanced between the various institutions. In the USA such terms as ‘imperial presidency’ became common after the period of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Because of concern over excessive presidential power there was a major reassertion of congressional authority, particularly during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. From 1981–92, however, the US government was under the firm leadership of presidents from the Republican Party; although they did not always have their own way, Congress, controlled by the Democratic Party, was able only to limit and block their initiatives, and not to enforce a different agenda. France, where President François Mitterrand also had to contend with a resurgent parliament for two years when the Gaullists held a majority (see cohabitation) may be the only other genuinely presidential system in the developed democratic world, but some cabinet government systems, especially the United Kingdom’s and arguably Germany’s, give the prime minister so much individual power that they are often accused of being ‘presidential’.
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