TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tsebelis, George
A1  - Thies, Michael
A1  - Cheibub, José Antonio
A1  - Dixon, Rosalind
A1  - Bogéa, Daniel
A1  - Ganghof, Steffen
T1  - Review symposium
BT  - beyond presidentialism and parliamentarism
JF  - European political science
N2  - Steffen Ganghof’s Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism: Democratic Design and the Separation of Powers (Oxford University Press, 2021) posits that “in a democracy, a constitutional separation of powers between the executive and the assembly may be desirable, but the constitutional concentration of executive power in a single human being is not” (Ganghof, 2021). To consider, examine and theorise about this, Ganghof urges engagement with semi-parliamentarism. As explained by Ganghof, legislative power is shared between two democratically legitimate sections of parliament in a semi-parliamentary system, but only one of those sections selects the government and can remove it in a no-confidence vote. Consequently, power is dispersed and not concentrated in the hands of any one person, which, Ganghof argues, can lead to an enhanced form of parliamentary democracy. In this book review symposium, George Tsebelis, Michael Thies, José Antonio Cheibub, Rosalind Dixon and Daniel Bogéa review Steffen Ganghof’s book and engage with the author about aspects of research design, case selection and theoretical argument. This symposium arose from an engaging and constructive discussion of the book at a seminar hosted by Texas A&M University in 2022. We thank Prof José Cheibub (Texas A&M) for organising that seminar and Dr Anna Fruhstorfer (University of Potsdam) for initiating this book review symposium.
KW  - semi-parliamentary government
KW  - presidentialism
KW  - parliamentary government
KW  - separation of powers
KW  - legislatures
KW  - executives
KW  - parliamentary democracy
Y1  - 2023
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-023-00426-9
SN  - 1680-4333
SN  - 1682-0983
PB  - Palgrave Macmillan
CY  - Basingstoke
ER  -