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6. The Executive

Study

Chapter Summary

The executive is the government institution or the collection of government institutions that acts on behalf of the state. While the variety of executive institutions is boundless, most fit into one of four general categories: Authoritarian monarchies are single dominant leaders who are mostly unconstrained. Authoritarian oligarchies are executive leadership groups that are mostly unconstrained by other institutions of government. Democratic presidents are executives elected separately from the democratic legislature and parliamentary democratic prime ministers are executives that come directly from the democratic legislature and are dependant upon it for support to remain in office. The historical development of the executive has generally featured the slow separation other functions of government from the executive.

Students should learn two very important lessons from this chapter. First, being a king just ain't what it used to be. Second history has been profoundly impactful upon the development of the modern executive institutions. The U.S. presidency is an excellent example in the way that many of the elements built into the system were explicitly included to prevent the United States from suffering the excesses of the kings and princes of Europe.

Study Questions and Exercises

• What is the difference between an authoritarian executive and a democratic executive?
• Why might authoritarian oligarchies be more stable over generations than authoritarian monarchies?
• What is the difference between the "head of government" and the "head of state," and what are the benefits of having the U.S. president perform both functions?
• Why would we expect the institutionalization of executive selection by combat to be an unlikely thing?
• Why might it be valuable to have the executive also the head of the legislative as it is in a parliamentary system.