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Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Democracies - Making and breaking governments in presidential democracies

3 important questions on Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Democracies - Making and breaking governments in presidential democracies

The cabinet formation process in presidential democracies differs in many ways from that in parliamentary ones:

No legislative responsibility so governments do not have to maintain majority legislative support to stay in office as they do in parliamentary systems
There is no uncertainty about the identity of the formateur
The fact that the president is always the formateur means that the president's party must be included in each cabinet regardless of its legislative size.
A portfolio coalition (government) does not imply a legislative coalition

A presidential decree is:

An order by the president that has the force of law. The scope and extent of these decrees vary from country to country. Presidents who have relatively weak decree power and whose party does not control a majority of legislative seats need support form other parties if they are to achieve policy goals, so coalition governments should not be exceptional in presidential systems.

The proportionality of cabinet portfolio allocation refers to:

The extent to which government parties receive the same percentage of cabinet posts as the percentage of legislative seats they provide to the government's seat total. Because presidents do not depend on having a legislative majority to stay in office, they do not have to negotiate with political parties to the same extent as prime ministers. On the whole, presidential democracies have fewer partisan ministers and lower cabinet proportionality that parliamentary ones.