The Free Academy #6: Michael Žantovský – What good is a president and wouldn’t we be better off without one?

To be stable, every democratic political system needs firm civic foundations, a strong state that executes its authority under the law and a symbolic apex that completes and symbolises power. A system that lacks foundations is by its nature instable and bound to collapse. Without a strong state a democratic system falls victim to special interests and clientelist structures. A democratic structure that lacks an apex is of necessity shallow, provincial, disjointed and stagnant. If we didn’t have a president, we’d have to invent one.