Towards Structuring and Updating the Typology of Semi-Presidentialism Based on the Peculiarities of Dualism, Party Affiliation and Responsibility of the Executives and the Composition of Legislatures

Abstract

The article clarifies that the typology of semi-presidentialism, which outlines the real powers of political institutions and the peculiarities of relations among them in the triangle “president–prime minister/cabinet–parliament”, was initiated to place the institutions of president and prime minister in the environment of the distribution of powers and responsibilities in the executive and party composition of legislatures. Thus, it was recorded that semi-presidentialism can be represented in the form of the systems of both unified and divided government, as well as their variational derivatives. Accordingly, it was found that the functionality and dynamics of semi-presidentialism are dependent both on constitutional norms and political factors. Simultaneously, the study primarily focuses on the updated and expanded theorization of the typology of semi-presidentialism based on the peculiarities of dualism, party affiliation and responsibility of the executives and the composition of legislatures. As a result, it argues that semi-presidentialism (based on presidential party positioning against the types of cabinets and the parameters of inter-party and intra-party relations) should be typified on the fully or partly unified majority systems, fully or partly unified minority systems, divided majority systems and divided minority systems, which provide various political implications. In addition, the study shows that such a logic and construction of different types of semi-presidentialism is of utmost importance, since it allows to recognize the various effects and consequences of the analyzed system of government, including its prevalence and statistics, stability and conflicts, as well as correlations with different types of political regimes.
 Keywords: semi-presidentialism, system of government, dualism, party affiliation and responsibility of the executives, composition of legislature, unified and divided systems.