Semi-parliamentary government in perspective: concepts,values, and designs |
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Authors: | Steffen Ganghof Sebastian Eppner Alexander Pörschke |
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Institution: | Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany |
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Abstract: | The article responds to four commentaries on the concept of semi-parliamentary government and its application to Australian bicameralism. It highlights four main points: (1) Our preferred typology is not more ‘normative’ than existing approaches, but applies the criterion of ‘direct election’ equally to executive and legislature; (2) While the evolution of semi-parliamentary government had contingent elements, it plausibly also reflects the ‘equilibrium’ nature of certain institutional configurations; (3) The idea that a pure parliamentary system with pure proportional representation has absolute normative priority over ‘instrumentalist’ concerns about cabinet stability, identifiability and responsibility is questionable; and (4) The reforms we discuss may be unlikely to occur in Australia, but deserve consideration by scholars and institutional reformers in other democratic systems. |
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Keywords: | Executive-legislative relations bicameralism visions of democracy parliamentary government presidential government |
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