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Journalism of Courage
B.R. Ambedkar’s explanation as to why parliamentary democracy suits India better
Under the presidential system of America, the president is the chief head of the executive. The administration is vested in him. Under the draft constitution, the president occupies the same position as the king under the English constitution. He is the head of the state but not of the executive. He represents the nation but does not rule the nation. He is the symbol of the nation. His place in the administration is that of ceremonial device or a seal by which the nation’s decisions are made known. Under the American constitution, the president has under him secretaries in charge of different departments. In like manner, the president of the Indian Union will have under him ministers in charge of different departments of administration. Here again, there is a fundamental difference between the two. The president of the United States is not bound to accept any advice tendered to him by any of his secretaries. The president of the Indian Union will be generally bound by the advice of his ministers. He can donothing contrary to their advice nor can he do anything without their advice. The president of the United States can dismiss any secretary at any time. The president of the Indian Union has no power to do so as long as his ministers command a majority in Parliament.
The presidential system of America is based upon the separation of the executive and the legislature. So, the president and his secretaries cannot be members of the Congress. The draft constitution does not recognise this doctrine. The ministers under the Indian Union are members of Parliament. Only members of Parliament can become ministers. Ministers have the same rights as other members of Parliament, namely, that they can sit in Parliament, take part in debates and vote in its proceedings. Both systems of government are, of course, democratic and the choice between the two is not very easy. A democratic executive must satisfy two conditions (1) it must be a stable executive and (2) it must be a responsible executive.
Unfortunately it has not been possible so far to devise a system which can ensure both in equal degree. You can have a system which can give you more stability but less responsibility or you can have a system which gives you more responsibility but less stability. The American and the Swiss systems give more stability but less responsibility. The British system on the other hand gives you more responsibility but less stability. The reason for this is obvious. The American executive is a nonparliamentary executive which means that it is not dependent for its existence upon a majority in the Congress, while the British system is a parliamentary executive which means that it is dependent upon a majority in Parliament. Looking at it from the point of view of responsibility, a nonparliamentary executive being independent of parliament tends to be less responsible to the legislature while a parliamentary executive being more dependent upon a majority in parliament becomes more responsible. The parliamentary systemdiffers from a nonparliamentary system inasmuch as the former is more responsible than the latter but they also differ as to the time and agency for assessment of their responsibility.
Under the nonparliamentary system, such as the one that exists in the USA, the assessment of the responsibility of the executive is periodic. It takes place once in two years. It is done by the electorate. In England, where the parliamentary system prevails, the assessment of responsibility of the executive is both daily and periodic….The daily assessment of responsibility which is not available under the American system is, it is felt, far more effective than the periodic assessment and far more necessary in a country like India.The draft constitution in recommending the parliamentary system of executive has preferred more responsibility to more stability…
Excerpted from `100 Best Parliamentary Speeches’, edited by Dr Subhash C. Kashyap, HarperCollins
