Blog #3 Chancellor vs. US President

The Chancellor of Germany, like the President of the United States of America, is the head of the goernment and is one of the highest attainable positions of power in the country. The current Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, holds several alike powers to the U.S. President, yet they also have several differences in power.
For example, both the Chancellor and President are the Head of Government. They also appoint and dismiss their Cabinet members (however, the Chancellor does not need consent of Parliament to do either). Both are heads of the Executive Branch of their respective governments. They both must also face elections every four years.
However, there are many differences between the two positions. As previously mentioned, the Chancellor is the head of government, but they are not the head of state, which the U.S. President is. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is that the President is elected via the Electoral College- that is, they recieve votes based upon garnering the most votes in a state and by collecting the most electoral votes. The Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag- or the lower house of the German Parliament. In order to ensure a majority support, often the largest party will need to team up with a smaller party to ensure they have a majority of the representitives within the government.
For example, the CDU-CSU party might align itself with the Green Party to get over the 50 percent barrier. In rare instances, such as the current government, the largest party, the CDU-CSU, must ally with the other large party, SPD, to form a 'Grand Coalition.' The first time the two large parties tried this, it failed rather quickly. There was therefor plenty of pessimistic attitudes when Angela Merkel took over. Yet three years later, here the Germans are, surprising even themselves the successes Merkel has attained. Also, the Chancellor, like the Prime Minister of England, may face a "vote of confidence" that they must pass. Failure to attain a vote of confidence from Parliament will result in the resignation of the Chancellor to bring in somebody new. Unfortunately, the U.S. President does not face a vote of condifence. Had they, one might be led to believe George W. would have been long gone. Both positions are of extreme importance, but following the events of the first half of the 20th century, the Germans have made sure to "water down" the Chancellorship in order to prevent too much power from falling into just one person's hands.