While the
Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and
Finland (from 1919 to 2000) exemplified early semi-presidential systems, the term "semi-presidential" was first introduced in 1959 in an article by journalist
Hubert Beuve-Méry,[5] and popularized by a 1978 work written by political scientist
Maurice Duverger,[6] both of whom intended to describe the
French Fifth Republic (established in 1958).[1][2][3][4]
Definition
Maurice Duverger's original definition of semi-presidentialism stated that the president had to be elected, possess significant power, and serve for a fixed term.[7] Modern definitions merely declare that the head of state has to be elected, and that a separate prime minister that is dependent on parliamentary confidence has to lead the legislative.[7]
Subtypes
There are two distinct subtypes of semi-presidentialism: premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism.
Under the president-parliamentary system, the prime minister and cabinet are dually accountable to the president and to the parliament. The president chooses the prime minister and the cabinet, but must have the support of a parliamentary majority for his choice. In order to remove a prime minister, or the whole cabinet, from power, the president can either dismiss them, or the parliament can remove them through a vote of no confidence. This form of semi-presidentialism is much closer to pure presidentialism. It is used in:
Guinea-Bissau,[8]Mozambique,
Russia, and
Taiwan. It was also used in Ukraine (first between 1996 and 2005; then from 2010 to 2014), Georgia (from 2004 to 2013), South Korea under the
Fourth and
Fifth republics, and in
Germany during the
Weimar Republic.[13][14]
In a semi-presidential system, the president and the prime minister may sometimes be from different political parties. This is called "
cohabitation", a term which originated in France after the situation first arose in the 1980s. Cohabitation can create either an effective system of
checks and balances, or a period of bitter and tense stonewalling, depending on the attitudes of the two leaders, the ideologies of themselves/their parties, and the demands of their supporters.[15]
Division of powers
The distribution of power between the president and the prime minister can vary greatly between countries.
In
France, for example, in the case of cohabitation, the president oversees
foreign policy and
defense policy (these are generally called les prérogatives présidentielles, presidential prerogatives) and the prime minister is in charge of
domestic policy and
economic policy.[16] In this case, the division of responsibilities between the
prime minister and the
president is not explicitly stated in the constitution, but has evolved as a
political convention based on the constitutional principle that the prime minister is appointed (with the subsequent approval of a parliament majority) and dismissed by the president.[17] On the other hand, whenever the president and the prime minister represent the same political party, which leads the cabinet, they tend to exercise de facto control over all fields of policy via the prime minister. However, it is up to the president to decide how much autonomy is left to said prime minister.
In most cases, cohabitation results from a system in which the two executives are not elected at the same time or for the same term. For example, in 1981, France elected both a
Socialist president and legislature, which yielded a Socialist premier. But while the president's term of office was for seven years, the
National Assembly only served for five. When, in the
1986 legislative election, the French people elected a right-of-centre assembly, Socialist president
François Mitterrand was forced into cohabitation with right-wing premier
Jacques Chirac.[15]
However, in 2000, amendments to the
French constitution reduced the length of the French president's term to five years. This has significantly lowered the chances of cohabitation occurring, as parliamentary and presidential elections may now be conducted within a shorter span of each other.
Advantages and disadvantages
The incorporation of elements from both presidential and parliamentary republics can bring certain advantageous elements; however, it also creates disadvantages, often related to the confusion produced by mixed authority patterns.[18][19]
Advantages
Parliament has the ability to remove an unpopular prime minister, therefore maintaining stability throughout the president's
fixed term.
In most semi-presidential systems, important segments of bureaucracy are taken away from the president, creating additional checks and balances where the running of the day-to-day government and its issues are separate from the head of state, and as such, its issues tend to be looked at on their own merits, with their ebbs and flows and not necessarily tied to who the head of state is.
Having a separate head of government who needs to command the confidence of the parliament is seen as being more in tune to the political and economic development of the country. Because the head of government is elected from the parliament, there is little potential for political gridlock to occur, since the parliament has the power to remove the head of government if needed.
Disadvantages
The system provides
cover for the president, as unpopular policies could be blamed on the prime minister, who runs the day-to-day operations of the government.
It creates a sense of confusion towards
accountability, as there is no relatively clear sense of who is responsible for policy successes and failures.
It creates both confusion and inefficiency in the
legislative process, since the capacity of
votes of confidence makes the prime minister respond to the parliament.
Republics with a semi-presidential system of government
The president has the authority to choose the prime minister and the cabinet, but only the parliament may remove them from office through a vote of no confidence. However, even though the president does not have the power to directly dismiss the prime minister or the cabinet, they can dissolve parliament.
The president chooses the prime minister without a
confidence vote from the parliament. In order to remove a prime minister, or the whole cabinet, from power, the president can either dismiss them, or the parliament can remove them through a vote of no confidence. The president also has the authority to dissolve the parliament.
^In France, the president chooses the prime minister (if they do not have a majority in the National Assembly, they have to choose the leader of the opposition) but can only dismiss them if they have a majority in the National Assembly. The National Assembly can remove the prime minister from office with a vote of no confidence. The president can also dissolve the National Assembly once a year.
^Poland has been identified as a de facto semi-presidential republic as the
President does exercise some form of governance and appoints the
Prime Minister as the head of government. The decision is then subject to a parliamentary vote of confidence.[20][13][21][10]
^Current Prime Minister
Ana Brnabić has been cited by political scientist Krzysztof Zuba as an example of a head of government with extensive political dependence on a leader of the governing party.[22] Opposition leaders and some observers describe Brnabić as a mere
puppet of President
Aleksandar Vučić, whose presidency, according to the
Constitution is largely ceremonial with no significant executive power.[23][22][24][25] Brnabić never denied this, and even said that Vučić should act as a "mentor" of the prime minister.[26]
^The Republic of Austria is de jure semi-presidential according to the country's Constitution, however behaves more like a parliamentary republic in practice by constitutional convention, with the Chancellor being the country's leading political figure despite nominally being ranked third according to the Constitution.
^Parliamentary Republic with an executive presidency and a separate Prime Minister (i.e. Votes of no confidence entailed the removal of the President).
References
Citations
^
abDuverger (1980).
"A New Political System Model: Semi-Presidential Government". European Journal of Political Research (quarterly). 8 (2): 165–187.
doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1980.tb00569.x. The concept of a semi-presidential form of government, as used here, is defined only by the content of the constitution. A political regime is considered as semi-presidential if the constitution which established it, combines three elements: (1) the president of the republic is elected by universal suffrage, (2) he possesses quite considerable powers; (3) he has opposite him, however, a prime minister and ministers who possess executive and governmental power and can stay in office only if the parliament does not show its opposition to them.
^
abBahro, Horst; Bayerlein, Bernhard H.;
Veser, Ernst[in German] (October 1998). "Duverger's concept: Semi-presidential government revisited". European Journal of Political Research (quarterly). 34 (2): 201–224.
doi:
10.1111/1475-6765.00405.
S2CID153349701. The conventional analysis of government in democratic countries by political science and constitutional law starts from the traditional types of presidentialism and parliamentarism. There is, however, a general consensus that governments in the various countries work quite differently. This is why some authors have inserted distinctive features into their analytical approaches, at the same time maintaining the general dichotomy. Maurice Duverger, trying to explain the French Fifth Republic, found that this dichotomy was not adequate for this purpose. He therefore resorted to the concept of 'semi-presidential government': The characteristics of the concept are (Duverger 1974: 122, 1978: 28, 1980: 166): 1. the president of the republic is elected by universal suffrage, 2. he possesses quite considerable powers and 3. he has opposite him a prime minister who possesses executive and governmental powers and can stay in office only if parliament does not express its opposition to him.
^Veser, Ernst[in German] (23 September 1997).
"Semi-Presidentialism-Duverger's Concept — A New Political System Model"(PDF) (in English and Chinese). Department of Education, School of Education,
University of Cologne. pp. 39–60. Retrieved 21 August 2017. Duhamel has developed the approach further: He stresses that the French construction does not correspond to either parliamentary or the presidential form of government, and then develops the distinction of 'système politique' and 'régime constitutionnel'. While the former comprises the exercise of power that results from the dominant institutional practice, the latter is the totality of the rules for the dominant institutional practice of the power. In this way, France appears as 'presidentialist system' endowed with a 'semi-presidential regime' (1983: 587). By this standard he recognizes Duverger's pléiade as semi-presidential regimes, as well as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania (1993: 87).
^Shugart, Matthew Søberg (December 2005).
"Semi-Presidential Systems: Dual Executive And Mixed Authority Patterns"(PDF). French Politics. 3 (3): 323–351.
doi:10.1057/palgrave.fp.8200087. Retrieved 21 August 2017. Even if the president has no discretion in the forming of cabinets or the right to dissolve parliament, his or her constitutional authority can be regarded as 'quite considerable' in Duverger's sense if cabinet legislation approved in parliament can be blocked by the people's elected agent. Such powers are especially relevant if an extraordinary majority is required to override a veto, as in Mongolia, Poland, and Senegal. In these cases, while the government is fully accountable to parliament, it cannot legislate without taking the potentially different policy preferences of the president into account.
^The
Greek Constitution of 1973, enacted in the waning days of the
Greek Junta, provided for a powerful directly-elected president and for a government dependent on Parliamentary confidence. Neither of these provisions were implemented, as the regime collapsed eight month's after the Constitution's promulgation.
^All South Korean constitutions since 1963 provided for a strong executive Presidency; in addition, the formally-authoritarian
Yushin Constitution of the
Fourth
Republic established a presidential power to dissolve the
National Assembly, nominally counterbalanced by a binding vote of no confidence. Both of these provisions were retained during the
Fifth Republic but repealed upon the transition to democracy and the establishment of the
Sixth Republic
^An interim constitution passed in 1995 removed the President's ability to dissolve the
Verkhovna Rada and the Rada's ability to dismiss the government by a vote of no confidence. Both of these provisions were restored upon the passage of a permanent constitution in 1996.
Sartori, Giovanni (1997). Comparative constitutional engineering: an inquiry into structures, incentives, and outcomes (2nd ed.). Washington Square, New York: New York University Press.
ISBN9780333675090.
Shugart, Matthew Søberg; Carey, John M. (1992). Presidents and assemblies: constitutional design and electoral dynamics. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521429900.