Executive

Evolution of the National Executive

While the proportion of liberal-democratic national executives is large in the contemporary world, as noted, this was not the case at all in the past, even in much of the 20th century, let alone earlier. It is worth noting that, in the classical Roman Republic, there were a number of separate executive positions rather than a government—for instance, the positions of consul, pretor, or edile. A similar framework was adopted by the few republics that came to exist during the Middle Ages and later, principally in Italy. The idea of a government prevailed in monarchies, as kings or queens came to appoint “secretaries” or “ministers” to oversee the fields that had to be covered, such as those of finance, foreign affairs, or defense. This model was widely adopted in the strong—or absolute—monarchies of 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century Europe. As against this trend, the first modern—and liberal—republic, that of the United States, was established by a formal constitution that came into force in 1789 and proved to be a great success; that is, it endured and was imitated early in the 19th century, as a variety of Latin American states became independent from Spanish rule.

On the other hand, the French revolutionary republic, set up in 1792, was not a success: It was replaced after a few years by Napoleon's empire, and the monarchy was reestablished in 1815. Yet that monarchy was different in character from the one that had ruled France for centuries; this was the result of the profound changes in the direction of liberal government that had begun to occur in Britain over a century earlier, from 1688. Such a move toward liberal government in Britain was followed gradually after 1815 through the course of the 19th century in parts of Western Europe and beyond, including Japan. The evolution toward a [Page 864]liberal-democratic government was to lead to the emergence of a parliamentary-cabinet system, which was to characterize much of Western Europe and the “Old Commonwealth” countries from the end of the 19th century in contrast to the American presidential system.

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