Suchergebnisse

"This volume charts the most significant areas of change in contemporary French politics and draws upon a variety of intellectual perspectives as a way of making sense of such change." "Together, these contribution explore the changing nature of the French political system and lay the foundations for future explorations."--Jacket

Semi-Presidentialism is the term used to describe the constitutional arrangement where there is a directly elected president and a prime-minister who is responsible to parliament. Semi-presidential countries include France, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. These countries share certain constitutional features, but the exercise of presidential and prime-ministerial power varies greatly from one to another. Semi-Presidentialism in Europe examines the politics ofsemi-presidentialsim and explores why it is that seemingly similar political systems operate in such different ways.

Shugart and Carey introduced the twin concepts of premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism in their 1992 volume, Presidents and Assemblies. Based on a meta-analysis of journal articles and book publications, this article distinguishes between an early and a contemporary history of the two concepts. The period of early history runs from 1992 to around 2009. This was the time when the two concepts were entering the academic consciousness and when there was also some typological and classificatory ambiguity. The period of contemporary history begins in 2010. This era is marked by conceptual and classificatory clarity and by an increasing reference to the two concepts in academic work. In the article, we show how the concepts have been applied over time, noting a number of changes across the two periods under consideration. We conclude by pointing out some challenges to the future application of the two concepts.

This article explores important aspects of the relationship between political leadership and institutional power, comparing the different forms that presidential institutions have taken across the world, and identifying the relationship between these structures and social, political, and economic outcomes. Semi-presidential systems are distinguished from presidential systems, and within the former a distinction is made between president-parliamentary and premier-presidential regimes. Some scholars have argued that presidential regimes are less conducive than parliamentary ones to the successful transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, but the empirical evidence is contradictory. Recent research has, however, drawn attention to finer distinctions within the various broad categories of presidentialism, focusing on more precise institutional arrangements and trying to identify which are more, and which are less, consonant with the consolidation of democracy.