ABSTRACT

The chapter provides readers with an overview of scholarship on the concept of semi-presidentialism. It shows a great variety of approaches to the concept. First, there are scholars who object to the concept as such as being unnecessary or puzzling. Instead, they keep using more traditional concepts of parliamentarism and presidentialism. Second, there are scholars who argue that the concept of semi-presidentialism is highly useful. This group of scholars is very heterogeneous. Some scholars content themselves with Duverger’s original definition; others have attempted to improve the definition. The latter group of scholars can be further divided into two groups. Whereas some scholars keep the notion of presidential powers in their definitions, other authors deliberately eliminate the notion of presidential powers because it is too vague. However, this book claims that the very fact that a concept is unclear should not lead to its elimination, but rather to its clarification. Hence, it seeks to refine Duverger’s original definition and propose an innovative Duvergerian definition of semi-presidentialism.