Constitutional Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Cindy Skach ()

Constitutional Political Economy, 2005, vol. 16, issue 4, 347-368

Abstract: Many emerging democracies across the globe are scrambling to craft new constitutions. The modal constitution being chosen in this most recent wave of democratization is a rather unknown, and under-theorized, type: semi-presidentialism. This article brings semi-presidentialism back to comparative constitutional theory, distinguishing it from presidentialism and parliamentarism, and guarding against its hasty export to new democracies. This article details when, and why, semi-presidentialism can be problematic from the standpoints of democracy, constitutionalism, and the protection of fundamental rights; and the conditions under which it can be supportive of them. After establishing the analytical framework, this article compares developments in two important historical cases of regime change under semi-presidentialism, cases which have also been among the most influential countries for European politics in the twentieth century: the French Fifth Republic and Weimar Germany. The concluding section draws the evidence together. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005

Keywords: separation of powers; semi-presidential; presidential; parliamentary; K10; K42; N14; N44; N94 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1007/s10602-005-4316-x

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