The Executive Branch: The Chief of State (1) - Comparative Study -

• Author: Mihaela Carausan
• Position: Associate Professor, PhD, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania
• Pages: 66-76

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS DANUBIUS Vol. 11, no. 1/2015

66

The Executive Branch: The Chief of State

(1) - Comparative Study -

Mihaela CĂRĂUŞAN1

Abstract: The Constitution is the essential source of law in all legal systems, and therefore of the

administrative law. The fundamental act of the state establishes the institutional architecture and

organizes the legal system. Many rules concerning public administration are set out in the European

Union Member States Constitutions. So, any legal insight on state authority and institutions begins

with the study of the Constitution. Therefore, in this article we will try to offer such a perspective on

the executive branch, more precisely o n the chief of state institution. The study of the executive

branch based on comparative method and on the Constitutional law is divided in two parts: the Chief

of State and the Government.

Keywords: separation and balance of powers; executive branch; democracy; primo-ministerial

regime; mandate and legal limitations

1. Introduction

Pluralist and liberal regimes promote democracy. From an institutional perspective,

democracy brings into the foreground the principle of separation and balance of

powers. The degree of separation and balance of powers is the one that

distinguishes between:

a) the rigid separation of powers which is characterized by the independence given

to the executive and not to the legislative, and also by their cooperation through the

chief of state: presidential regime. In the contemporary period, outside the United

States who created and institutionalized first this regime in the constitutional

doctrine, we can still find the same type of separation in Latin American countries

and in some African countries.

1 Associate Professor, PhD, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,

Romania. Address: 6 Povernei Street, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, Tel.:+4021.318.08.97, fax:

+4021.312.25.35. Corresponding author: mihaelacarausan@snspa.ro.

AUDJ, vol. 11, no. 1/2015, pp. 66-76