Original scientific paper
“Minimalist” concepts of semi-presidentialism: are Ukraine and Slovenia semi-presidential states?
Davor Boban
orcid.org/0000-0002-9748-3250
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The concepts of semi-presidentialism by Robert Elgie and Matthew
S. Shugart differ greatly. When applied to Ukraine and Slovenia,
this shows how a country can be categorized differently depending
on the author’s understanding of what the defining properties of
semi-presidentialism are. Elgie’s minimalist concept classifies both
countries as semi-presidential, while Shugart’s concept points out
major differences between the systems of government of these two
countries. According to the Shugart’s concept, Ukraine is a semipresidential
regime; Slovenia is not. These two concepts illustrate the
divergences in defining semi-presidential systems and, consequently,
the differences in the understanding of the properties and the functioning
of political systems in various countries. By comparing the
systems of government in those two countries and by the application
of Robert Elgie’s minimalist and Matthew Shugart’s non-minimalist
concepts I will test the usefulness of the minimalist concepts in a
theoretical and practical way.
Keywords
semi-presidentialism; semi-presidential system; concepts of semi-presidentialism; Robert Elgie; Matthew S. Shugart; hierarchical relationships; transactional relationships; Ukraine; Slovenia
Hrčak ID:
26409
URI
Publication date:
3.6.2008.
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