Presidential and Legislative Elections

Abstract

Over a hundred countries have popularly elected presidents. Within a democratic context, presidential and legislative elections have a profound impact on politics and government in a country. Systems of government with democratically elected presidents fall into two broad regime-type categories: pure presidential and semipresidential. Presidential systems vary in terms of the length of the president’s term, the rules determining how the winner of the presidential contest is determined, and the ability of a president to seek re-election. Legislatures in presidential and semipresidential systems are elected using an electoral system from one of four broad families, with proportional representation being the most common. In pure presidential democracies, the presidential elections exercise a significant direct and indirect impact on the pattern of competition in the legislative elections, with both elections combining to influence the nature of democratic governance in a country.