The American system

English Homework

The American system of government is more democratic than the French. Do you agree with this statement?

        Every year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) provides an index that measures the state and the level of democracy in the world. In 2015, the United States were ranked 20th, with 8.05, and were considered as a ”full democracy”, whereas France was ranked 27th, with 7.92, and categorized as a “flawed democracy”. According to The Economist, the United States appear to be more democratic than France. However, there are several criterions to determine whether a country is a democracy or not. Both the United States and France are, according to the main standards of democracy: a separation of the three branches of power, the rule of law, universal suffrage… However, they practise democracy in different ways. They use different government systems: the United States work with a presidential system, whereas in France, it is a semi-presidential system, closer to a parliamentary one. Obviously, there are still some similarities: both have presidents as Head of State, both have bicameral legislatures… Yet, their functioning remains quite distinctive, and these differences between the two systems allow us to determine which country can be considered as the most democratic.

        Firstly, we can begin by looking at the way the president is elected. Indeed, in both American and French systems of government, the executive, and especially the Head of State (the President) has an important role. Therefore, it seems relevant to examine how the latter is chosen by the citizens. In France, the President is elected by the people, whereas in the United States, he is elected by an electoral college. How can the choice of president be more democratic than the French way, where it is directly asked to the population of age? From this point of view, the French system does seem to be more democratic.

        However, in the United States, the three branches of power, executive, legislative and judicial, are completely separated. Those three powers are more independent. The President cannot dissolve the Congress, and the secretaries of State named by the President are not responsible in front of the Congress, unlike in France. However, there are possibilities for both executive and legislative to perform a counter power on the other. For example, the President can veto legislative bills before they become laws, and the Congress can impeach the President. In France, the separation between executive and legislative is more confused; for instance, most of the laws come from the executive (even though they are discussed and voted by the Parliament and the Senate).

        Moreover, we can come back to the democracy index, to analyse why the United States are better ranked than France. There are six criterions: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties. The main divergence between the United States and France is the score for political culture: 8.13 and 6.25. How can we explain this difference? In France, there is more and more disconnections between people and politics. Firstly, people tend to trust politicians less, not to mention the government or generally political parties. According to a survey made by the Cevipof in October 2016, only 4% of the French are satisfied with François Hollande’s actions as President. Furthermore, since a few years we can observe a rise of abstention, which conveys either the disinterest of people for politics, or the feeling of disappointment towards politicians. The World Values Survey shows that only 37% of people in France are interested in politics, against 58% of people in the United States. These results partly explain why the United States achieved a better score for political culture, and therefore why they come before France in the overall ranking.

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