Semi-Presidential System

Bahara Hussaini

Assignment: Research Paper

Semi-presidential System

        According to Choudhry & Stacey (2013), Shugart (2005) and Baharo (1997) semi-presidential system were designed by Maurice Duverger in 1980. It is spreaded after the decline of authoritarian in Africa and Latin America. It is also called the third form of democratic constitution which involved the core constitutions of democratic systems, presidentialism and parliamentarism. Choudhry & Stacey (2013) added that in presidential government the main power is in the hand of the president and in parliamentary system, the government is depended to political parties in legislature which threatening the democratic process, whereas, the semi-presidential system include both president and prime minister that share the executive power with the president as head of state and prime minister as head of government. This paper is going to explain the features, advantages and disadvantages of semi-presidential system, discuss two countries which conducted semi-presidential system and recommend one of those countries political systems to conduct in Afghanistan.

        Choudhry & Stacey (2013) explained that in a semi-presidential system the president is elected for a fixed period of time; therefore, he is not depended to the parliaments’ vote of confidence. He has a constitutional defined power and the president and prime minster share the executive power. Moreover, they indicated that the prime minister leads the cabinet and he is depended to the parliaments’ vote of confidence. This system has two main sub-types: Premier-presidentialism in which only the legislature has the power to dismiss the government and President-parliamentarism in which both the president and legislature have the power to dismiss the government. In addition,  Bahro (1997) explained that there are some negative points about semi-presidential system such as it is rejected because it is caused deadlock in governments , in post-communist countries, it links with authoritarian patterns and it also could lead to impasse in fragmented countries. However, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (2014) and Bahro (1997) stated that there are some advantages of semi-presidential government. It provides suitable solutions in political crises, it has the best advantage which is electing president for fixed time, and this system reduce the failures of democracy.  

        There are few countries in the world which established semi-presidential system such as France, Russia, Ukraine, India and Pakistan. IDEA (2014) and Choudhry & Stacey (2013) revealed that France is the ideal model of semi-presidential system which is one of the most successful democracies in the world. France conducted this system after the Forth Republic by amending his constitution and allowing presidential election in 1962. In addition, Choudhry & Stacey (2013) added that It is followed a failed experience in Fourth Republic with powerful legislature and weak executive which passed 25 governments over 12 years. The new constitution was established to prevent this instability and provide a secure and stable government for people; therefore, in the semi-presidential system they reduce power of parliament and increase the power of president.  Moreover, IDEA (2014) and Harvey (2008) stated that France institution empowers the president to name the prime minister, veto, foreign policy and emergency power.  IDEA (2014) said that the constitution gives emergency power to the president, but limits his power by depending the president’s official decisions to the prime minister’s acknowledgement.