Parliamentarism versus presidentialism in the policy arena (original) (raw)

2000, Comparative Politics

https://doi.org/10.2307/422371

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Abstract

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Some Complex Answers to the Simple Question 'Do Institutions Matter?': Policy Choice and Policy Change in Presidential and Parliamentary Systems

Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2003

Much current research in political science focuses on the impact which political institutions have on policy outcomes. A substantial body of this`neoinstitutional' work, often organized around the question,`Do institutions matter?', examines differences in the performance of presidential and parliamentary systems. The conventional wisdom in the literature has been that presidential and parliamentary systems tend to select different policies and exhibit different patterns of policy change. But the key question is whether the two different kinds of institutional systems should necessarily be expected to choose different policies or exhibit different patterns of policy change. This paper emphasizes that one cannot draw valid inferences about the nature of policy choice and policy change in different kinds of institutional systems just by considering the institutional rules alone. Instead, if we wish to compare the nature of policy choice and policy change in the different systems, it is essential to consider the interaction between the institutional rules and the policy preferences of the individual of®ceholders in these systems. And what must be compared involves the sets of policy equilibria produced by each of the systems. When these policy equilibria are systematically compared across institutional systems, the results about policy choice and policy change do not always support the inference that`institutions matter'. KEY WORDS . parliamentary systems . policy change . political institutions . preference pro®les . presidential systems Journal of Theoretical Politics 15(2): 145±200

Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism

British Journal of Political Science, 2013

The presidential-parliamentary distinction is foundational to comparative politics and at the center of a large theoretical and empirical literature. However, an examination of constitutional texts suggests a fair degree of heterogeneity within these categories with respect to important institutional attributes. These observations indicate that the classic presidential-parliamentary distinction, and the semi-presidential category, may not be systemic. This article investigates whether the defining attributes that separate presidential and parliamentary constitutions predict other attributes that are stereotypically associated with these institutional models. The results suggest the need for considerable skepticism of the ‘systemic’ nature of the classification. Indeed, the results imply that in order to predict the powers of a country's executive and legislature, it is more useful to know where and when the constitution was written than whether the country has a presidential or ...

Presidents, Governments, and Parliaments. A Framework for Analysis of the Institutional Design of Contemporary Democracies.

The democratic method offers a peculiar solution of one of the central problems of politics, which is the exercise of power by a leadership. Democracy makes the holders of the power accountable for their actions and decisions and fixes such accountability in a relatively rigid institutional framework made of roles, procedural resources and arenas of interaction among the roles. The institutional design of the democratic political systems has attracted much attention both from the legal and political perspective, because it affects the actual distribution of power among the political actors and the effectiveness of their decisions. The article reviews critically some of the most influential classifications of the democratic institutional design, with particular reference to the triangular interactions among Presidents, Governments, and Parliaments. Moving from the assumption that the arrangements among these three top political institutions identify the main patterns of the democratic government, the distinction among Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential systems set by the constitutional law is rejected and a new classification schema is advanced. In this new perspective the institutional design of democracy consists of institutional roles of authority, procedural resources attached to them and arenas of the interactions among the roles.

Power in office: presidents, governments, and parliaments in the institutional design of contemporary democracies

Constitutional Political Economy, 2020

The institutional design of democratic regimes has attracted much attention from a legal and political perspective, because it affects the actual distribution of power among political actors and the effectiveness of their decisions. The article advances a classification of the democratic institutional design, with particular reference to the triangular interactions among Presidents, Governments, and Parliaments. Moving from the assumption that the arrangements among these three top political institutions identify the main patterns of the democratic government, the distinction among Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential systems set by the constitutional law is rejected and a new classification schema is advanced. In this new perspective, the institutional design of democracy consists of the institutional roles of authority, procedural resources attached to them and arenas of confrontation among the roles.

Are Parliamentary Systems Better

Comparative Political Studies, 2009

The institutional differences between presidential and parliamentary rule are well known, yet the practical effects of these divergent constitutional arrangements within democratic polities have received scant attention. This article employs a global data set to test the relationship between a historical measure of parliamentary rule and 14 indicators ranging across three policy areas: political development, economic development, and human development. The study revealed a strong relationship between parliamentarism and good governance, particularly in the latter two policy areas. To the extent that these institutions influence the quality of governance, parliamentary systems may offer advantages over presidential systems of democratic rule.

Design and Timing in Bureaucratic Reform in Presidential vs Parliamentary System: A Theoretical Approach

Istanbul University - DergiPark, 2004

While the study of comparative bureaucratic organization within the advanced, industrial democracies has made significant progress in recent years (Moe and Caldwell, 1994), we have a much thinner understand ing of the causes and consequences of bureaucratic structure in the developing world. In order to generate hypotheses about both the timing and persistence of bureaucratic reform across different institutional settings, first we maintain that fearing agency's power loss and diminished policy-making flexib ility, executives in presidential democracies have incentives to wait until the very end of their term before insulating their policy preferences in an institutional form. In contrast, it can be argued that the inherently unstable nature of multi-party coalitions within most parliamentary systems requires undertaking the insulation task right at the beginning of one's term in office. Second, we argue that due to their extreme concentration of power, Latin America's presidential democracies are highly susceptible to institutional instability, while the multiple veto gates embedded in South Eastern Europe's parliamentary democracies render them inherently more resilient to subsequent tampering by politic ians. The paper concludes by noting the implications the analysis has for the current literature on policy reform. Presidential democracy, parliamentary democracy, bureaucratic structure Günümüzde, gelismis-endüstriyel demokrasilerde karsilastirmali bürokratik organizasyonlar konusunda yapilan çalismalarda önemli ilerlemeler saglanmasina ragmen (Moe ve Caldwell, 1994), gelismekte olan ülkelerde bürokratik yapiyi olusturan neden ve sonuç iliskileriyle ilgili kapsamli bir anlayis gelistirilememistir. Bürokratik reformun zamanlama ve devamlilik özelliklerinin farkli kurumsal düzenlemeler iç indeki yansimalari, genel bir hipotezi ortaya

Presidents, prime ministers, parties, and mandaterepresentation: A global test

How does presidentialism affect democratic representation, both in theory and in practice? In this paper, part of a larger book project, we build on our previous research (Samuels and Shugart 2003), which argued that all else equal, presidentialism impedes representation based on prospective government "mandates." Inspired by and building on research on Latin America by Susan Stokes (2001), here we empirically test the hypothesis that presidentialism works against prospective mandates by exploring the incidence of "policy-switching" under different democratic constitutional formats: presidentialism, semi-presidentialism, and parliamentarism. We compare the campaign promises and enacted policies before and after every democratic election around the world between 1978 and 2002 (N=384), and we confirm our hypothesis: on this measure at least, mandate-representation is far less likely under presidentialism, in particular under minority government. We explore the implications of our findings for theories of democratic representation through political parties.

Parliamentarized Presidentialism: A New Model in Executive-Legislative Relations

2001

The Bolivian executive is selected by the legislature, moving the nominally presidential system closer to a parliamentary model. Reinforced by the electoral and party systems, the model differs significantly from the “hybrid presidential” model. A better understanding of this model sheds light not only on the role of institutional design in new democracies, but also calls into question some of the assumptions drawn from the traditional dichotomy between presidential and parliamentary systems.

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2015

The author determined phases of formation, powers, role and place of presidency in the government system of Ukraine at different stages of its political development, outlined historiography of presidency's researches in Ukraine, incrementally structured the evolution of political and legal views about the nature and purpose of the presidency in Ukraine, outlined the factual authority, role and place of presidency in the government system of Ukraine (on Ukrainian ethnic territories) in the first decade of the twentieth century. He also described the influence of the USSR presidency on the characteristics of formation and role of the presidency in post-Soviet Ukraine as well as revealed the dynamics of presidency in the independent Ukraine, 1991-2014. The author also found out the problem of institutional inheritance of presidency (including his powers, role and place in system of government) in the context of impact of some historical milestones of Ukrainian statehood in the following historical milestones. As result, the researcher argued that the institution of presidency in Ukraine (including the government system at all) needs to be reformed because of the past institutional, legal and political legacy of the presidency in Ukraine, and given to the experience of presidency in Central and Eastern Europe countries.

Measuring Presidential Dominance over Cabinets in Presidential Systems: Constitutional Design and Power Sharing

Brazilian Political Science Review, 2016

This study focuses on the degree of political dominance exercised on cabinets by the executive chief in presidential systems. According to a debate that began in the 1990s, presidential systems are characterized by a non-collegial decision-making process, led by and personified in the figure of the president, in contrast to parliamentary systems where a joint decision-making process is prevalent. The key argument of this research note is that, although the majority of presidents have the constitutional power to remove cabinet ministers, the executive decision-making process in presidential systems is not necessarily vertical or based on a noncollegial process. By building a new index, we reveal a significant variation in the executive power exerted by presidents over their cabinets. To classify the degree of political dominance of presidents over their cabinets, we analyzed the rules of cabinet decision-making processes as defined in 18 Latin American constitutions.

D EMOCRATIC I NSTITUTIONS AND R EGIME S URVIVAL: Parliamentary and Presidential Democracies Reconsidered

Annual Review of Political Science, 2002

We review arguments and empirical evidence found in the comparative literature that bear on the differences in the survival rates of parliamentary and presidential democracies. Most of these arguments focus on the fact that presidential democracies are based on the separation of executive and legislative powers, while parliamentary democracies are based on the fusion of these powers. From this basic distinction several implications are derived which would lead to radically different behavior and outcomes under each regime. We argue that this perspective is misguided and that we cannot deduce the functioning of the political system from the way governments are formed. There are other provisions, constitutional or otherwise, that also affect the way parliamentary and presidential democracies operate and that may counteract some of the tendencies that we would expect to observe if we were to derive the regime's performance from its basic constitutional principle.

Systems of Government: Parliamentarism and Presidentialism

Parliamentary and Presidential Democracies: Which One is Best? With the exception of the United States, where a system of separation of executive and legislative powers exists, all countries that are considered to be stable democracies adopt a constitution that is, at least partially, parliamentary. A parliamentary constitution is characterized by the fusion of executive and legislative powers, achieved by the fact that the government needs the confidence of a majority in the legislative assembly in order to come to and remain in power. Parliamentarism is popular among both academics and politicians. The main reasons for this follow from the crucial distinction between parliamentarism and presidentialism: the fact that under parliamentarism legislatures may remove the government via the approval of a vote of no-confidence. When such votes are passed, either a new government is formed or, in case this is not possible, new elections are held. Under presidentialism, in turn, the government and the legislature serve fixed and independent terms in office. T This basic difference is thought to produce a number of consequences for the way these systems operate: • • • • Under presidentialism, it is thought, governments are not likely to be supported by a majority of the legislature since there is nothing in the system that guarantees that such a majority will exist. Deadlocks between the government and the legislature, thus, would be common under presidentialism and would lead to conflict between the two powers. Coalitions in presidential regimes are thought to be rare, again due to the fact that noting in the system would provide the incentives for individual politicians and their political parties to cooperate with one another and the government. Decision-making under presidentialism is normally considered to be decentralized, that is, to be such that the president simply responds to proposals originated in the legislature, which is, in turn, organized in such a way as to allow for politicians to pursue individualistic rather than partisan strategies. As a consequence, the government's ability to influence and implement policy is reduced and " crises of governability " are more likely to occur. Together, thus, these observations may seem to make a compelling case that countries seeking to establish a lasting democratic order should adopt a parliamentary form of government. Yet, none of these arguments is sufficient to make a presidential regime an unattractive choice per se. To begin with, democracies at low levels of income per capita face high risks of collapse, regardless of their form of government. As a matter of fact, when per capita income is less than $1,000 (in 1985 PPP USD), parliamentary democracies are more likely to die (that is, to become a dictatorship) than presidential democracies: the expected life of the former is 7 years whereas the expected life of the latter is 10 years. The difference is not very large and hence not much should be made of it. What matters is that, at low levels of income, both types of democracy face equally high risks, with the form of government making little difference for the survival prospects

The Prime Essentialities of Presidential and Parliamentary Governance on The Globe

INTEGRATED RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION, 2019

The establishment of democracy in countries with no prior democratic experience, its reestablishment in countries that had experienced periods of authoritarian rule, and the expansion in the number of independent states following the demise of European and Soviet communism led to the adoption of democracy in most countries. As a result of these changes, attention has been focused on constitutional rules that guide competition for and the exercise of political authority under democracy. Democratic governments are those that permit the nation’s citizens to manage their government either directly or through elected representatives. This is opposed to authoritarian governments that limit or prohibit the direct participation of its citizens. One of the fundamental aspects of constitutional design is the choice between presidential government, parliamentary government and a hybrid system that combines some aspects of these two. A main difference between the presidential and the parliamentary systems of governance is as a result of how that states executive, legislative and judiciary organs are organized.

Perils of parliamentarism? Political systems and the stability of democracy revisited

Democratization, 2009

Parliamentary systems are generally regarded as superior to presidential ones in democratic sustenance. This article contributes to the debate on the relationship between systems of government and the survival of democracy by bringing in a new perspective and analysing the experiences of 131 democracies during 1960-2006. We argue that systems of government do matter, but their effects are indirect; they exert their influence through societies' prior democratic records. Confirming the conventional argument, our data analysis shows that uninterrupted parliamentary democracies face significantly lower risks of a first breakdown than their presidential counterparts. Contrary to the common understanding, however, we find that the risk of a democratic breakdown can be higher for parliamentary regimes than for presidential regimes among the countries whose democracy has collapsed in the past. Furthermore, the risk of a previously failed democracy falling again grows as (the risk of) government crises increase(s). Hence our study questions the common belief that parliamentary systems are categorically more conducive to democratic stability than presidential ones.

Review symposium: Beyond presidentialism and parliamentarism

European Political Science

Steffen Ganghof’s Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism: Democratic Design and the Separation of Powers (Oxford University Press, 2021) posits that “in a democracy, a constitutional separation of powers between the executive and the assembly may be desirable, but the constitutional concentration of executive power in a single human being is not” (Ganghof, 2021). To consider, examine and theorise about this, Ganghof urges engagement with semi-parliamentarism. As explained by Ganghof, legislative power is shared between two democratically legitimate sections of parliament in a semi-parliamentary system, but only one of those sections selects the government and can remove it in a no-confidence vote. Consequently, power is dispersed and not concentrated in the hands of any one person, which, Ganghof argues, can lead to an enhanced form of parliamentary democracy. In this book review symposium, George Tsebelis, Michael Thies, José Antonio Cheibub, Rosalind Dixon and Daniel Bogéa rev...

Comparative Political Studies originally published online 20 Comparative Political Studies Presidential Systems? Out of the Cabinet : What Drives Defections From the Government in

This article challenges a key part of the conventional view of coalitions in presidential systems that sees them as short-lived and ad hoc. The author shows instead that there is wide variation in the durability of governing coalitions across these regimes. She develops a theory of the incentives of parties to participate in the government and the circumstances under which scholars might expect to see the existing governing coalition break down. The author draws on data from 121 cabinets in 12 Latin American countries between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s to show that the dissolution of the cabinet is more likely when the president places less value on coalition building as a policy-making strategy and when parties find it costly to participate in the government. In particular, the author shows that strong unilateral institutional powers tend to diminish the incentives of presidents to compromise with other parties; in contrast, effective legislatures and high rates of approval for the executive contribute significantly to more stable governments.

Presidentialism and democracy

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