(1) The President is elected independently of the Legislature and has direct mandate from the electors to perform the executive functions of government.
(2) He holds office for a fixed term and cannot be removed from office by an adverse vote in the Legislature against any of his policies but only by a special process of impeachment.
(3) The Legislature is elected independently and holds office for a fixed term.
(4) The Legislature functions independently of the Executive and cannot be dissolved by the Executive of the Head of State, as is the case in the Parliamentary system.
(5) The Legislature is the supreme law-making body of the country and no proposal can become law unless voted by this body.
(6) The Judiciary is responsible for the interpretation of laws and executive orders in the light of the principles embodied in a written constitution.
In practice, a complete separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature would make the system impossible to work, and in actual fact, there is no absolute separation of powers in the United States system. There is in practice some merging of powers and the “jurisdictions” of the three branches of government, to some extent, overlap.
From the survey of the cause of failure of Parliamentary Government, given in the previous chapter, it will be recalled that Parliamentary Government failed due to the following reasons:
(1) A conflict between the Head of State and the Chief Executive, the Prime Minister.
(2) Lack of party discipline and irresponsible behavior of politicians in forming and destroying governments.
(3) Interference by members of the Legislature with day to day administration by exercising political pressure on the Executive for their personal ends.
After taking these into account, the Constitution Commission recommended that:
“We should have a form of government where there is only one person at the head of affairs, with an effective restrain exercised on him, by an independent Legislature members of which, however, should not be in a position to seriously interfere with the administration by exercising political pressure for their personal ends. Such a system is available in the Presidential form of government which has been successful in the United States of America.... The fundamental difference between this system and the parliamentary form is that while in the latter, the head of the- executive is solely dependent on the continued daily support of his majority party, the President, in the Presidential form, who is also a representative of the people, is not dependent for his continuance in office, on the Legislature. If the Legislature goes against him, he may have to yield if he wishes to avoid a deadlock, but a Prime Minister, however, strong his position, can easily be shaken out of office on the very next day without justification if
