Composition of a government

1. WMSU
CTE
BSED SOCIAL STUDIES
Institutions within
Democracy

2. • 3 Branches of the Government
• Electoral systems and Political Parties
Topic Outline

3. Branches of the Government
• Legislative
• Executive
• Judiciary

4. Legislative Branch
• Making and Revising laws
• Providing Administrative
oversight to ensure laws
are being properly
executed
• Providing representations
of the constituents to the
government

5. Executive Branch
• Carries out or Enforces the laws
• Made up of a singular leader, a
leader with an assistant (vice-
president) or a small group of
leaders who have institutional
powers, and serves as both the head
of government and the head of
state.
• In their capacity as head of
government, chief executives must
run and manage the day-to-day
business of the state.
• Commander-in-chief

6. Judicial Branch
• part of government where
laws can be interpreted
and enforced.
• and can also be invested
with the power to strike
down laws that it deems
unconstitutional.

7. Electoral System
• voting systems
• provides a set of rules
that dictate how elections
(and other voting
initiatives) are conducted
and how results are
determined and
communicated.
• Election
Types of Electoral System
• Plurality voting system
• Majoritarian voting
system
• Proportional voting
system

8. Plurality Voting System
• where the candidate who gets the most
votes, wins. In this system, there is no
requirement to attain a majority, so this
system can sometimes be called the first-
past-the-post system

9. Majoritarian Voting System
• where, as the name suggests, candidates
must win a majority in order to win the
election. If they do not win a majority, there
needs to be a runoff election.

10. Proportional Voting System
• where voting options reflect geographical
or political divisions in the population to
enable a proportional leadership when
elected.

11. Political Parties
• refers to an organized
group of citizens
advocating an ideology or
platform, principles and
policies for the general
conduct of government
and which, as the most
immediate means of
securing their adoption,
regularly nominates and
supports certain of its
leaders and members as
candidates for public
office

12. WMSU
CTE
BSED SOCIAL STUDIES
Systems of
Democracy

13. • 3 types of systems of democracy
• Advantages and Disadvantages of the
systems
Topic Outline

14. Presidential System
• a single executive system, is one where
the head of government is a president who
leads the executive branch of government.
The executive branch of government, in
this system, is separate and distinct from
the legislative branch, to ensure a
separation of powers.

15. Parliamentary System
• called parliamentary democracy, where the
chief executive, usually a Prime Minister,
attains their role through election by the
legislature.
• Therefore, in this scenario, Prime Ministers
must have the support of the legislature in
order to take their office, and they can be
pulled at any time by the legislature.
• The legislature can vote “no confidence” in
the Prime Minister.

16. Semi-presidential System
• dual executive system, where a country
has both a president, a prime minister and
cabinet. The president, in this scenario,
comprises the executive branch and
needs to be elected by the population,
whereas the Prime Minister is elected
through the legislature and, with their
cabinets, help perform the functions of the
legislative branch

17. Advantages and Disadvantages