Soviet Parliament OKs U.S.-Style Presidency : Reforms: A draft constitutional amendment is easily approved. But liberal foes fear dictatorial powers.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, wanting greater authority to promote his reforms, Tuesday pushed through the Supreme Soviet a proposed constitutional amendment providing for a new, U.S.-style presidency over objections by liberals that the position would be far too powerful.

After a heated, daylong debate, deputies of the Supreme Soviet (Parliament) voted, 347 to 24 with 43 abstentions, on “the essential need” to establish a stronger, Western-style presidency, a post to which Gorbachev is certain to win election in two weeks’ time.

Overriding the protests of liberals that the new president would have virtual dictatorial powers and that further debate is required, the deputies then gave preliminary approval, 306-65, to the draft version of a constitutional amendment creating the post.

Gorbachev, increasingly frustrated by the government and party bureaucracy’s opposition to many of his political and economic reforms and his consequent inability to pull the country out of its deepening crisis, hailed the approval of the proposal, a clear-cut victory for him, as “a great political event in the history of our state.”

“This measure is vital to press ahead with perestroika, to speed up reforms, protect democracy and effectively help the revolutionary transformation of our federation,” he said. “We must remember that we are heading not only for a greater diversity of opinions but for greater political pluralism as well.”

But he clearly intends to use his new authority, which would include the power to issue decrees with the force of law, to break through many of the deadlocks in which his reforms are now trapped. He will also be able to declare a state of emergency or martial law or place regions under direct presidential rule to deal with the continuing civil unrest.

“Life itself has confronted us with the need to carry out a fundamental regrouping of our forces at the highest echelons of power,” Gorbachev said, suggesting that extensive governmental changes will follow. “It is imperative to strengthen executive power to ensure that our laws work.”

And he angrily criticized those radical deputies who had objected to the sweeping powers, accusing them of engaging in “cheap demagoguery” and shouting back at them when they protested.

“Those who clamored for a presidency at the top of their voices just three or four weeks ago are claiming today that introducing the presidency is the path to dictatorship, to stepping on the throat of democracy and suffocating perestroika and burying them both,” Gorbachev said. “But only people who would urge us to put off this most important decision are those who do not want the situation to change for the better.”

The measure has been controversial from the outset, and during the boisterous debate, sharp divisions were clear to the left and the right of the centrist bloc of deputies. Gorbachev played to the center as he tolerated modest criticism, lashed out angrily at radicals and the ultra-conservatives and finally argued his own case with passion.

Many political observers, including liberals, agree that a “strong hand” is needed to solve the country’s problems. The new political structure has proved cumbersome and ineffective as a combination of elements of the old system such as the present “collegial presidency” in the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and Gorbachev’s reforms.

Alexander N. Yakovlev, one of Gorbachev’s closest associates in the party’s ruling Politburo, said that “the collective form of power . . . eventually loses momentum and is marked by a bureaucratization of work processes and a lack of individual responsibility.”

As power is passed from the Communist Party to constitutional bodies, the country needs a clear leader, and even more so to guide perestroika, Yakovlev said.

“We already have the authority to control the leader of the country, but we have no leader,” he added. “There is an obvious contradiction between the need to speed up perestroika and the weakening of government systems on all levels, especially in the center.”

Other deputies, arguing from a less theoretical plane, asserted that measures had to be taken quickly to pull the country out of its crisis.

“We are tired from social tension. Our people are asking, ‘When are you going to put the country in order?’ ” Rano A. Ubaidullayeva, an economist from Uzbekistan in Soviet Central Asia, told other deputies. “We need a person who will have real power--the quicker, the better.”

Radicals argued, however, that the constitutional amendment would make the president too powerful. Recalling the abuses of power not only under the dictator Josef Stalin but more recently under Leonid I. Brezhnev, they asked repeatedly why Gorbachev needed so much additional authority and what checks there would be on him once elected to the new post.

“All our decisions can be crossed out by the president,” Anatoly A. Sobchak, a law faculty dean from Leningrad, told the other lawmakers, outlining the president’s veto powers and his authority to rule by decree.

Sergei B. Stankevich, a political scientist, said he agreed that there was “a real need for executive power” but felt that, “if the law is adopted in its present form, the president can do almost everything.”

“We can still feel the great totalitarian tradition in this country,” Stankevich added, “and this is a good reason for us not to be too hasty.”

The measure, in a significant reduction of the party’s once-total authority, clearly envisions the president as “above” the ruling Communist Party and responsible to the country as a whole. That would represent a further separation of the party’s functions from those of the state.

The proposal now goes to legislative committees for review and possible inclusion of changes suggested during the debate with final approval by the Supreme Soviet expected early next week.

It will then be considered on March 12 and 13 by a two-day special session of the Congress of People’s Deputies, the full national legislature, as a constitutional amendment. If the amendment is approved, the 2,250-member Congress will then elect a president for an initial four-year term.

Later, the Soviet president will be elected directly by the nation’s voters in another reform intended to make the country more democratic.

Vladimir N. Kudryavtsev, a leading constitutional lawyer and political scientist, who oversaw the drafting of the amendment, noted that the president would have the power to proclaim a state of emergency, to declare war if the Soviet Union were attacked, to name the prime minister and other key ministers, to conduct foreign policy, to veto legislation and to dissolve the parliamentary and legislative bodies and call new elections.

The president would also coordinate the work of a new federal council that would deal with the central government’s relations with the country’s 15 constituent republics and his own presidential council, which would make basic policy decisions.

The president’s decrees could be appealed to the new Committee of Constitutional Supervision, according to Kudryavtsev, and the Congress of People’s Deputies would have the authority to cancel them.

The draft amendment, in another political first, provides for the impeachment of a president if he or she violates the constitution or the law, and it provides a detailed line of succession if the president is unable to fulfill his duties. A president is limited to two terms, which generally will be five years each.

Deputies from the Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced they would not participate in the debate over any of the votes on the proposed presidency because they believe it inappropriate to do so before their future in the Soviet Union is resolved.