Democratic Regime Types

Democratic Regime Types

Democratic Regime Types Overview

• There are four main types of democratic regimes:
  1. Parliamentary regimes
  2. Presidential regimes
  3. Semi-presidential regimes
  4. Directorial regime
• Two primary criteria differentiate these regimes:
  • The way power is separated between the executive and legislative branches (structure).
  • The relationship between the executive and legislative branches (process, balance of powers).
• The applicability of these regime types is largely limited to democratic countries.

Parliamentary Regime

• Examples:
  • Republics: French Third Republic (1875-1940).
  • Monarchies: United Kingdom.
• Key characteristics:
  1. Formal supremacy of the parliament:
     • Parliament selects the government.
     • The government is responsible and accountable to the parliament.
  2. Formally dual executive.
  3. Flexible division of power:
     • Legislative-executive power sharing is common.
     • Government members are often also members of parliament.
     • 'Doomsday devices' exist, which include:
       1. Parliamentary dissolution.
       2. No-confidence vote (including constructive no-confidence).

Parliamentary Regimes: Monarchy

• Voters elect the parliament.
• The parliament selects the government, which includes the "chief executive".
• The government is accountable to the parliament.
• The monarch appoints and recalls the government and may dissolve the parliament.

Parliamentary Regime: Parliamentary Elected President

• Voters elect the parliament.
• The parliament selects the government, which includes the "chief executive".
• The government is accountable to the parliament.
• The parliament elects the president.
• The president appoints and recalls the government and may dissolve the parliament.

Parliamentary Regime: Directly Elected President

• Voters elect both the parliament and the president.
• The parliament selects the government, which includes the dominant executive player.
• The government is accountable to the parliament.
• The president appoints and recalls the government and may dissolve the parliament.

Flexible Division of Powers

• Close ties and mutual influence between the executive and legislative branches.
• Walter Bagehot described the English constitution as having a 'nearly complete fusion of executive and legislative powers,' which he termed the 'efficient secret'.
• Two major practical aspects:
  1. Members of parliament often serve as members of the government:
     • Compulsory in the UK.
     • Flexible rules (may or may not be allowed) in the Czech Republic (CZE).
     • Not allowed in the Netherlands (NED), Sweden (SWE), Norway (NOR), Benelux countries, and Portugal.
     • In Israel, the Prime Minister must be a Knesset (parliament) member, but ministers are not obliged to be Knesset members.
  2. Doomsday devices:
     • More important, according to Lupia and Strøm (1995).

Parliamentary Dissolution

• Purpose:
  • Acts as a safety valve.
  • Can be used as a power tool.
  • Facilitates constitutional change (e.g., in Denmark, Belgium, Iceland, Luxembourg).
• Actors involved:
  • Head of state.
  • Parliament (including self-dissolution).
  • Voters (e.g., in Iceland, Slovakia, Austria).
• Degree of restrictions:
  • Little restriction (e.g., in Denmark, UK - until 2011 and from 2022, Sweden).
  • Moderate restriction.
  • Extreme restriction (e.g., in Norway).

Government Resignation

• "Voluntarily":
  • Political reasons:
    • Parties in the cabinet fail to find a compromise.
    • The cabinet is defeated on an important issue.
  • Non-political reasons:
    • Health reasons or death.
• Forced (dictated by the constitution):
  • Obligatory confidence vote (investiture).
  • Facultative confidence vote:
    • The government seeks to solidify its support and intimidate party rebels (a "game of chicken").
  • Vote of no-confidence:
    • Initiated by the opposition.

Two Types of No-Confidence Votes

1. Standard ("destructive")
2. Constructive vote of no-confidence:
   • Protects the government against initiatives that have no chance of success.
   • Leads to the medialization of the opposition.
   • Makes it harder for the opposition to remove the government from office.
   • But:
     • Limits the opposition.
     • Undermines government responsibility.
     • A small party may easily decide a cabinet change.
   • Examples: Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Slovenia, Israel, Papua-New Guinea.

Investiture Vote

• A formal vote on a new cabinet.
• Compulsory in many countries:
  1. Express vote of confidence in the cabinet.
  2. Election of the prime minister (e.g., in Germany).
• Non-existent in some countries.
• Related to negative parliamentarism.

Negative Parliamentarism

• The government is not obliged to win a majority.
• Two major types:
  • No formal voting investiture on the cabinet:
    • Presumption of confidence (confidence by default).
    • Examples: Norway, Denmark, Iceland, UK.
  • Formal voting, but key principle is tolerance:
    • The government may take office in all cases except when a majority of all MPs vote against it.
    • Absence in voting and abstaining = support for the government.
    • Example: Sweden.

Government Formation

• Government:
  • Derived from parliament (parliamentary election).
  • Result of inter-party bargaining.
  • The head of state may have a role.
• Outcome of the will of:
  1. Parliamentary majority.
  2. Head of state.

Cabinet Types in European Democracies

Rationalised Parliamentarism

• Major weakness of classic parliamentarism:
  • Weakness of the executive.
  • Instability of the executive.
• Remedy:
  • Strengthening the executive.
  • Rationalised parliamentarism: A set of institutional provisions to increase the stability and power of the executive while keeping the parliamentary character of the country.

Two Ways to Achieve Rationalised Parliamentarism

1. Strengthening the prime minister (GERMANY 1949):
   • Reaction to the inter-war period (Weimar Republic).
   • Strong president with the power to dissolve the parliament and issue decrees.
   • Referenda.
   • Easy way to dissolve the parliament and recall the cabinet.
   • CRUCIAL: PARTY SYSTEM (Sartori).
   • Constructive no-confidence vote.
   • Legal threshold.
   • Constitutional court outlawed anti-system parties.
2. Strengthening the president (FRANCE 1958):
   • Semi-presidentialism.

Presidentialism

1. President is popularly elected.
2. Chief executive = head of state.
3. Fixed terms of office for both the president and parliament.
4. Neither branch can remove/dissolve the other; neither is reliant on the other’s confidence.

Separation of Powers: Presidential System

• Voters elect both the Congress and the President.
• An Electoral College is often involved in the election of the president.
• President and Congress are elected for a fixed term.
• No 'doomsday devices' exist where one branch can dissolve or remove the other.

Divided Government

• Occurs when the executive faces an opposing parliamentary majority.
• Examples:
  • Presidential regime (e.g., USA):
    • 1981 - 1993
    • 1995 - 2003
    • 2007 - 2009
  • Semi-presidential regime (cohabitation):
    • Mitterrand - Chirac (1986-1988)
    • Mitterrand - Balladur (1993-1995)
    • Chirac - Jospin (1997-2002)
  • Parliamentary regime:
    • Minority cabinets (e.g., Denmark).
    • Alternative majorities (1982-1993).

Semi-Presidential Regime

• Origins:
  • Germany and Finland (1919).
  • France (1958).
• Archetype.
• Reaction to:
  • Deficiencies of the parliamentary regime.
  • France losing ground in international politics.

Common Features

• With parliamentarism:
  • Dual executive.
  • Government responsible to parliament.
• With presidentialism:
  • Strong president.
  • Government (at least partially) responsible also to the president.

Semi-Presidential Regime - Structure

• Voters elect both the president and the parliament.
• The president appoints the government.
• The government is responsible to the parliament.

Conceptual Problems with Semi-Presidentialism

1. Not all scholars accept it as a distinct category:
   • Often seen as a modification or type of parliamentary regime.
   • May be described as:
     • Parliamentarism + a stronger president.
     • Dualist parliamentarism.
     • Mixed system.
     • Parliamentary system with presidential corrective.
     • Regime alternating between presidentialism and parliamentarism.
2. Scholars disagree on how to define semi-presidentialism.

Conceptualization of Semi-Presidentialism

• Term introduced to political science by Maurice Duverger (1955).
• Different approaches:
  1. Classic definition – M. Duverger (1980).
  2. Post-Duvergerian approach – R. Elgie (1999).
  3. Neo-Duvergerian approach.

Maurice Duverger (1980) Definition

1. President elected by universal suffrage.
2. President possesses considerable powers.
3. There is a prime minister and ministers who possess executive and governmental power and can stay in office only if the parliament does not show its opposition to them.

Giovanni Sartori (1994) Definition

• “Dual authority” of the executive.
  • Popularly elected president.
  • Prime minister.
• Dual authority is conditioned by three factors:
  1. The president is independent from parliament, but his will must be conveyed and processed via his government.
  2. The government is independent of the president, subject to a no-confidence vote, and needs parliamentary support.
  3. The dual authority of the executive allows for different balances and shifting prevalence of power within the executive.

Robert Elgie (1999) Definition

• Post-Duvergerian tradition.
  1. Popularly elected fixed-term president.
  2. President exists alongside a prime minister and cabinet.
  3. PM and cabinet are responsible to parliament.

Shugart and Carey (1992) Definition

• Two subtypes of semi-presidentialism:
  1. Premier-presidentialism:
     • The prime minister and cabinet are collectively responsible solely to the legislature.
  2. President-parliamentarism:
     • The prime minister and cabinet are collectively responsible to the legislature and the president.
  • Although both types were originally intended as an alternative to the term semipresidentialism, the authors (and others) have now accepted them as subtypes.

M. Brunclík and M.Kubát (2018) Definition

1. Popularly elected president.
2. Dual executive - power sharing.
3. Cabinet (and PM) derived from both the president and parliament, but the cabinet is only accountable to the latter and can therefore only operate with its consent, or at least its tolerance.
4. President independent of parliament and not accountable to it.
5. The president has the power to dissolve parliament.

Key Aspects of Semi-Presidentialism

• Presidential formal powers.
• Constitutional practice and conventions.
• Informal presidential authority.
• Relationship to parliamentary majority.
• Cohabitation.

Cases

• France (since 1958).
• Finland (1919 – 1999).
• Germany (1919-1933).
• Poland (1990-1995).
• Portugal (1976-1982 ?).
• R. Elgie (1999): lists tens of cases around the world.

Directorial System

• Parliament dominates.
• However:
  • No doomsday devices.
• President:
  • Elected for 1 year.
  • Rotates between government members.