Original scientific paper
Semi-Presidential System and Rationalised Parliamentarism: French and German Cases
Tomislav Bonić
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Proceeding from the institutional approach to research, the article analyses the cases of institutional arrangements of Germany and France, which are prototypic categories of the system of rationalised parliamentarism and the semi-presidential system. Diff erent defi nitions of both systems are also examined, as well as their interpretations and critiques. In both countries, new government systems have been generated through constitutional engineering. In 1958, France formed a prototypic constitution of the semipresidential system with a bicephalous executive branch of government. In particular, attention is drawn to problems of a possible confl ict between the prime minister and president within the French bicephalous executive government. In 1949, a system of rationalised parliamentarism with an indirectly elected head of state was established in Germany. The aim of both systems was the adaptation of institutions to the new social, economic and political circumstances, but while in Germany the government system has remained within the matrix of parliamentarism (as rationalised parliamentarism), in France a new category of government system has emerged – the semi-presidential system.
Keywords
rationalised parliamentarism; semi-presidential system; constitutional engineering; France; Germany
Hrčak ID:
38264
URI
Publication date:
15.5.2007.
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