Against presidentialism

Abstract

Abstract This chapter uses the book’s insights about semi-parliamentary government to articulate a systematic instrumentalist case against presidentialism. It discusses major justifications of presidential government to be found in the academic literature and shows that virtually all of them concern the separation of powers, not executive personalism (i.e. the constitutional concentration of executive power in a single human being). Moreover, executive personalism tends to undermine the benefits of powers separation, either directly or by requiring problematic constitutional safeguards, such as presidential term limits. Explicit justifications of executive personalism are neither well developed nor supported by systematic empirical evidence. Semi-parliamentary government is superior to presidential government because it can achieve the benefits of powers separation without the perils of executive personalism.