Semi-Presidentialism & Democracy
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| ^ CDI Director Prof Benjamin Reilly with Prof Yu-Shan Wu, Director of IPSAS |
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| ^ Prof Reilly presenting his paper a the Taipei conference |
Semi-presidentialism is an increasingly popular constitutional model which combines a directly elected president with significant powers as well as a prime minister chosen by the legislature. Many new democracies have adopted this form of government in recent years, making it one of the most distinctive features of the ‘third wave’ of democracy. But semi-presidential constitutions are also prone to problems of political gridlock and instability due to competing power-bases and dual authority structures, particularly during periods of political division when rival parties command the presidency and the parliament.
In an examination of these issues in the Asia-Pacific, CDI Director Ben Reilly presented a paper on the record of semi-presidentialism in East Timor, Mongolia and Taiwan to an international conference on “Semi-Presidentialism and Democracy: Institutional Choice, Performance, and Evolution”, held on 17-18 October 2008 in Taiwan. Professor Reilly argued that semi-presidential constitutional models mitigated against successful democratic consolidation, particularly during periods of divided government when the president and the prime minister are drawn from different parties.
The conference, organised by the Institute for Political Science at Academica Sinica (IPSAS), featured leading scholars of semi-presidentialism from around the world, and highlighted the impact that such systems have on democratic governance.
Click on these links for Prof Reilly's paper and the IPSAS web page:
