Go through these slides to understand the executive organ of government, its meaning and functions

1. PLB-152
Modern Government:
Concept, Organization and Classification
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Unit I (c)

2. Meaning and definitions
- The organ of the government with the duty to execute or implement laws.
- It also formulates policies of government
- Also formulates draft bills to handover them to legislature
- The narrower view, given by the classical political scientists, only includes head of the state and
council of ministers in executive
- The modern changes and emerging importance of bureaucracy gave recognition to the broader
definition
“In a broad and collective sense, the executive organ embraces the aggregate or totality of all the
functionaries and agencies which are concerned with the execution of the will of the state as that will
has been formulated and expressed in terms of law.” – Garner
“In its broadest sense, the executive department consists of all government officials except those
acting in legislative or judicial capacity. It includes all the agencies of government that are concerned
with the execution of states will as expressed in terms of law.” - Gettell
- Above definitions are the broader view of the term executive
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3. From the definitions:
i) the prime function of executive is to make policies and to ensure implementation of laws
ii) Executive includes the political executives (Head of the state and the council of minister) and also
the non-political permanent executives (civil servants)
1) Political executives
- Non-permanent
- In Presidential forms of government they are directly elected by people
- In parliamentary systems they are elected by the legislature
- Fixed tenure
- Function to prepare drafts bill and policies for legislature
2) Non-political executives
- Permanent members till the age of job maturity or retirement
- Civil servants are under this category of the executive
- No political affiliation
- Function to implement laws and policies without any political consideration
- Trained, educated and selected through specialized exams
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4. The Executive in different forms of governments
1) Nominal and real executive
- Nominal head of executive does enjoy no or a little amount of executive power
Eg.: Indian President; British Crown
- Real executive is the real head of state and enjoys real executive powers. They are of two kinds:
a) Singular executive; b) plural executive
- The example singular executive is President of USA, where all the power is vested in Present only
- If the real executive power divided in more than one person, its is called as plural executive. Eg;
Switzerland where the executive power is shared among seven minister, called presidents.
2) Parliamentary and presidential executive
- In parliamentary system, executive is elected by legislature and it is responsible toward legislature.
- In presidential form of government, President enjoys all the executive powers without any restraint
by legislature. They cannot be removed by legislature. He is has a fixed term and can be removed
only through impeachment
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5. 3) Hereditary and elective executive
- In hereditary kind of the executive, the power flows through the generation to generation.
- In elective executive, the members of executive body are elected by the people, directly or
indirectly
4) Dictatorship
- Dictator dictates the laws and also implement them as he want. People have no right to speak
against them. They cannot be removed by the people from the offices.
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6. Functions of the executive
1) Administrative functions
- The executive is responsible for maintaining law and order in the country.
- It is the duty of this organ to make appointments on different posts to maintain law and order
2) Legislative
- It helps legislature in making laws
- Prepare drafts and bill and hand over them to legislature for the further process
3) Foreign relations
- To establish political relations with other countries
- To formulates foreign policies based on certain goals of national interests at world level.
- Appointment of ambassadors
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7. 4) Policy making
- To prepare policies for socioeconomic development of people
- To make and execute policies of development planning
5) Financial Functions
- It is the custodian of all the finances in the country
- It prepares budgets
- Deals with the taxes
6) Defense war and peace related functions
- To preserve unity and integrity of the country
- Protect country from external aggressions
- To organize and prepare military for war
- Peace and settlement related functions
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