The Concept of Executive Power

After the change in the basis of government's legitimacy from divine right of monarchs to people's or nation's right to sovereignty in European's Political Philosophy, “Separation of Powers” has been raised as the basic principle of government by scholars and philosophers of politics. Later it leads to the birth of the term “Executive Power” in the legal-political literature. This term has encountered several changes in practical arena and has undergone many implications in different circumstances and eras. In this article, besides reviewing the nature of “Executive Power” from the attitude of the originators of the “Separation of Powers” theory, its bases and main tasks are analyzed, and by employing these study's results, the current approaches, i.e. classical/traditional and modern approaches are evaluated toward interpretation of the concept of “Executive Power”. Finally, highlighting the modern approach, which believes in extensive interpretation of this concept according to its possible purposes and main tasks, we emphasized that it is essential for parliament to appropriately supervise on the executive power to prevent it from derogation, not limiting it, which may decrease its efficiency.