There is a new article on semi-presidentialism in the journal French Politics. Currently, the paper is available as a free download from the publisher’s website, but hurry as this offer is not likely to be maintained for much longer.

The article is by Jung-Hsiang Tsai from National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. It is called ‘Sub-types of Semi-presidentialism and Political Deadlock’, vol. 6, no. 1, 2008, pp. 63-84.

The paper appeals to me because it based on the assumption that semi-presidentialism needs to be operationalised on the basis of sub-types and that the sub-types have different political consequences.

In this paper, Tsai argues that five sub-types of semi-presidential can/should be identified: (1) president-dominant, (2) premier-dominant, (3) parliament-dominant, (4) cohabitation, and (5) balance-of-powers semi-presidentialism. On the basis of case studies, he argues that balance-of-powers semi-presidentialism is the most likely to lead to political conflict, and that it has the potential to result in the collapse of democracy.