sjlee's review against another edition
3.0
There are many different kinds of representative democracies in the world. While it is possible to divide them between presidential and parliamentary systems the truth is that a significant amount of middle ground exists between both forms of government. The growth and development of semi-presidential systems is a key signifier of that. I purchased this book to better understand the relationship between parties and presidents and I definitely got that and then some.
The conclusions that David J. Samuels and Matthew S. Shugart come to might be terribly surprising. The authors argue that empowering the executive ultimately concentrates authority within that political party and government with the executive. Other branches of government and internal party mechanisms become increasing deferential to the executive and constraining the executive or holding it to account becomes increasingly difficult. In parliamentary systems many times simple mechanisms are in place to ensure loyalty, uniformity and accountability. The parliament and the prime minister cannot be opposed to each other, not really.
Presidentialism erodes the fundamental assumptions in republican government, which is deeply problematic. The authors provide many case studies from around the world and different political regimes, and the correlation is there, as well as the logic. In a republic that president is going to be the most prominent and visible representative of a given political party, even if the constitutional powers he/she possesses are less significant. As a result presidents have a great deal of power in setting their parties' policies and agenda, even if it goes against the expressed will of other politicians within their party. Samuels and Shugart point to Brazil in particular for this phenomenon. The party gets defined by the presidents.
Presidents also tend to have a source of power separate from the rest of the party - usually direction election. As a result it is perilous for frustrated party members to hold their presidents in check. Impeachment is a big step and is only likely to hurt the party in general. As a result presidents tend to benefit from their parties rallying around them despite controversy.
Many of the elections in the last few years and the ensuing politics have borne out the theories and case studies discussed in this book. It has given me an insight into presidential politics that I lacked before. The book also provides useful references for further reading on this topic for those who wish to explore it further. It is an academic work and may be challenging for those not familiar with political science.
The conclusions that David J. Samuels and Matthew S. Shugart come to might be terribly surprising. The authors argue that empowering the executive ultimately concentrates authority within that political party and government with the executive. Other branches of government and internal party mechanisms become increasing deferential to the executive and constraining the executive or holding it to account becomes increasingly difficult. In parliamentary systems many times simple mechanisms are in place to ensure loyalty, uniformity and accountability. The parliament and the prime minister cannot be opposed to each other, not really.
Presidentialism erodes the fundamental assumptions in republican government, which is deeply problematic. The authors provide many case studies from around the world and different political regimes, and the correlation is there, as well as the logic. In a republic that president is going to be the most prominent and visible representative of a given political party, even if the constitutional powers he/she possesses are less significant. As a result presidents have a great deal of power in setting their parties' policies and agenda, even if it goes against the expressed will of other politicians within their party. Samuels and Shugart point to Brazil in particular for this phenomenon. The party gets defined by the presidents.
Presidents also tend to have a source of power separate from the rest of the party - usually direction election. As a result it is perilous for frustrated party members to hold their presidents in check. Impeachment is a big step and is only likely to hurt the party in general. As a result presidents tend to benefit from their parties rallying around them despite controversy.
Many of the elections in the last few years and the ensuing politics have borne out the theories and case studies discussed in this book. It has given me an insight into presidential politics that I lacked before. The book also provides useful references for further reading on this topic for those who wish to explore it further. It is an academic work and may be challenging for those not familiar with political science.
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