Prime Ministers can never behave like Presidents. Therefore, the Essay - 1

Prime Ministers can never behave like Presidents. Therefore, the presidentialisation of parliamentary democracies thesis is misguided. Discuss - Essay Example 2010). This mounting discontent in several parliamentary democracies is taking place against the backdrop of a popular movement toward individual headship by the chief executive. This has not been complemented by new machineries that would enable the electorate to make their leaders, instead of the parliamentarians and parties, responsible (Mughan 2000). The case of Britain, and existing pre-election movement, reveals these conflicts well. Tony Blair pleases voters on the basis of his reputation, but the electorate cannot reprimand or reward the prime minister directly. Their sole power is to support or oppose his/her party, whose control on its leader is usually viewed as restricted (Flinders, Gamble, Hay & Kenny 2009). This disparity in accountability has broadened over the recent decades. Although political leadership strategies and electoral appeals in Britain throughout the past three decades have become ever more presidential and individualised, the system stays decisively party and parliamentary based (Gunther, Montero & Puhle 2007). The emergence of this ‘individualisation’ of political leadership has been traced by the author of The British Presidency, Michael Foley (2000). He claimed that it is, partly, the politicians’ reaction to the media environment. Policymakers resent the media’s focus on exposing personality conflicts and the manipulative mechanisms of contemporary politics, disregarding policy and ideas, making political issues emergency headlines. There are, basically, similarities and differences between presidential chief executives and prime ministers, but both necessitate two major power machineries to work successfully: control over the parliament, and power within the executive (Samuels & Shugart 2010). In general, the United States, the most prominent case of presidentialism, has an executive which certainly holds the first power source, but