Executive Leadership and the Legislative Process

This chapter examines executive leadership and the legislative process in the United States (U.S.) and Canada. The U.S. has a separation-of-powers or presidential system while Canada has a parliamentary system. The constitutional differences do not produce predictable differences in policymaking performance, but they have crucial consequences in interaction with other political conditions. In particular, their effects depend heavily on variable conditions of the two countries’ electoral and political party systems. To explore these effects, the chapter distinguishes two major aspects of policymaking performance: (1) ideological direction and change and (2) policy competence. Over the long run, both systems have tended toward moderation and incrementalism. Canada has probably had an advantage with respect to competence. In recent years, developments in the respective party systems have challenged the long-term moderation of Canadian policymaking and have produced gridlock and episodes of serious incompetence in the U.S.