A Practical Guide to Constitution Building: The Design of the Executive Branch

This paper appears as chapter 4 of International IDEA’s publication A Practical Guide to Constitution Building. It focuses on the design of the executive branch of government. The paper starts by setting out the various models of executive governments, including presidential, parliamentary and mixed systems. A discussion concerning the importance of design options for all political actors follows, along with a discussion of the importance of the political context within the state. Finally, the report discusses various design options for de-concentrating executive power. These options include: a centralized executive in a democratic setting, institutional de-concentration within the executive, institutional checks on the executive, and designing the executive''s substantive powers.