Semi-Presidentialism outside Europe: A Comparative Study

Semi-Presidentialism Outside Europe: A Comparative Study, eds. Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup. New York: Routledge, 2007.It is widely known that most post-Communist countries have chosen semi-presidential regimes in their political transformations. Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup's Semi- Presidentialism Outside Europe: A Comparative Study reveals that this largely holds true for other components of the "third wave of democratization"-Francophone and Lusophone Africa, Timor-Leste, and Taiwan. Based on case studies of these countries, this collection describes three constitutional traditions in which semi-presidential regimes emerged during the last fifteen years: post-Communist (Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia), French (Madagascar and Niger) and Portuguese (Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and Timor-Leste). Although it might appear paradoxical, Taiwan's semi-presidentialism resembles the post-Communist model, perhaps because dual executives already existed under the KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) one-party regime (203). Authors Francois Frison-Roche and Gerard Conac overview post- Communist and French contexts of semi-presidentialism. Elisabete Azevedo and Lia Nijzink play a similar role for semi-presidentialism of Portuguese origin in their long chapter dedicated to Guinea-Bissau. Nevertheless, what this book refers to as Lusophone tradition remains obscure; it does not have descriptions of the Portuguese constitution.The authors find tangible continuity between present semi-presidentialism and that of previous Communist regimes, since the latter had dual executives, the most important attribute of semi-presidentialism-that is, the central committees of the Communist parties of socialist countries and governments, and the governments in charge of strategic and managerial affairs of governance. In the post-Communist era, this traditional system of dual executives has been reinforced by presidents' instincts toward self-preservation (i.e. using the prime minister as scapegoat for unpopular policies, 162). Moreover, semi-presidentialism has allowed presidents to avoid the harsh challenges of parliamentary elections (which, for example, U.S. "full" presidents inevitably face) by using political tactics in the nomination of prime ministers (168). In contrast, although French colonies granted the population limited participation in colonial governance (137), post-French colonial countries' imitation of Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle's semi-presidential constitution turned out to be ephemeral (p. 80). As was the case with their Portuguese counterparts, the former French colonies shifted toward presidentialism, consolidating personal and one-party power. Perhaps the French tradition of executive dualism been lost before democratization started in the 1990s, since the period of post-colonial authoritarianism was longer (almost 30 years) than that of the former Portuguese colonies (about fifteen years). In contrast to traditionalism, characteristic for post-Communist Eurasia, political actors in Francophone and Lusophone countries consciously chose semi-presidentialism to integrate political and ethno-confessional oppositions into their regimes, using the dual executive for power-sharing. Therefore, the opposition's desire to win elections sometimes nullified the option of modifying "highly presidentialized semi-presidentialism" in favor of of typical semi-presidentialism, as was the case with Mozambique (128). …