Russian Life & People Digest
Question by geri: Does anyone know why Russia has a president and prime minister?
Putin is the prime minister & Medvedev is the president
??..
The Gentleman soldier: Is this only in Russia? Because UK has one prime minister – no president, US – one president, no PM..
Answers and Views:
Answer by The Gentleman Soldier
Prime minister is kind of like the speaker of the house
Read all the answers in the comments.
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allenbmeangene says
A lot of countries have both a prime minister and a president. The president is the "head of state", which is a largely ceremonial function, and the prime minister is the "head of government"(often the leader of the majority party in that country's parliament), where a lot of the real governing power resides. The U.S. consolidates the head of state and head of government functions in the presidency. In the U.K., the monarch is the head of state— an unelected president, if you will.
Fred says
Russia has both a PM and a president primarily because it is a republic with a parliament.
A republic is any country that has an elected head of state. The head of state is responsible for primarily ceremonial duties. They formally appoint the PM and ambassadors (in parliamentary systems), they have the power to call the legislature into session, or dismiss it under certain circumstances, and they are responsible for greeting foreign dignitaries. The head of state often is required to co-sign bills passed by the legislature, marking them as legal, and may also be the formal commander-in-chief of the military.
In a parliamentary system, the executive and legislative branches of governmetn are fused together. The prime minister and his cabinet collectively serve as the executive, supervising the government agencies and bureaucracy that turn the bills of legislatures into policy. The PM is responsible for developing policy based on the laws passed by the parliament; as chief of the executive, he is the head of government. Note, however, that the PM is still a member of the parliament, and is the chief legislator. The legislature (parliament) picks the executive leadership, and the executive leadership, in turn, is responsible to parliament.
This system contrasts with the presidential system, as found in the USA. In the US system, the head of government and the head of state are one person (the president). The president supervises the bureaucracy (the executive branch), but is separate from the legislature. So, the executive is able to carry out the ceremonial duties of head of state. In US practice, by the way, the chief legislator is the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
However, parliamentary (and semi-presidential) systems are different. Since parliamentary leadership can change between elections, a stabilizing, non-political influence is required. Almost all parliamentary systems thus have a separate head of state, so that there is someone who can (theoretically) check the actions of parliament, call it into session, and so forth. This role almost always requires someone who is not a member of parliament. In democratic constitutional monarchies, the head of state is a king, queen, or emperor. Modern examples include: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Japan. In Canada and Australia, which are independent countries, traditional ties to the extinct British Empire mean that they retain the British queen or king. Since the monarch lives far away, the de facto head of state is a governor-general, appointed by the queen on the advice of the local prime minister.
If a parliamentary system has no monarchy, then it is a parliamentary republic, in which case, as I said before, the head of state is elected. Almost always, the elected head of state is titled "president." The president in such a system has little day-to-day power: they stay out of political fights, and serve as a symbol of national stability. They don't use their powers except for ceremonial purposes, or in case of severe political crisis. Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Greece, and others all are parliamentary republics, with a prime minister (or chancellor, which is the same thing) as head of government, and a president who serves as head of state.
In countries like Poland, France, and Taiwan, the role of head of government is shared between the president and the prime minister (and the PM's cabinet), with the president being head of state. Such systems are called semi-presidential. In this system, the PM may be appointed by the president, giving the president more power.
Russia's government looks semi-presidential on paper, but it is really an authoritarian regime. When Putin was president, the parliament acted mostly as a rubber stamp, giving Putin whatever he wanted. Now, Putin is prime minister, and the president is seen as his lackey — it is expected that Medvedev will step down to let Putin become president again. Even so, the constitutional rules are observed as formalities, so Russia continues to have both president and prime minister. As shown, it is not unique at all in this regard.
Keith B says
Their government was set up this way after socialism failed (as it always does). Yes, Putin is now the Prime Minister and Medvedev is President. Other countries use this set up. Russia has always had a different approach to government throughout it's history. It is a very different culture. The people have suffered through history with poor leadership.