Comparative political economics Lecture 4 Paolo Graziano

Executive-Legislative Relations where is power? different types of government… but also different types of power relations. ‘democratic’ need for a balance of power presidential system parliamentary system semipresidential system prime ministership

Presidential system head of government is elected for a predefined period and usually cannot be forced to resign by a vote of no confidence presidents are directly elected one-person, noncollegial executives ex: US, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela

Parliamentary system head of government is responsible to the legislature (i.e. dependent on the legislature’s confidence and can be dismissed by a legislative vote of no confidence or censure) prime ministers are selected by legislatures collective or collegial executives ex: United Kingdom, Germany

Semipresidential system mix of both presidential and parliamentary features president directly elected… … but with power to be shared with the prime minister… … appointed by the president by responsible to the legislature possible ‘cohabitation’ ex: France, Ireland, Finland, Austria, Iceland, Portugal

Prime ministership prime minister is responsible to the legislature but... directly elected and not selected by the legislature (possible ‘mutual dismissal’) formally collegial executives, but often non collegial executive (prime minister predominance) ex: Israel (1996-2001)

Executive dominance I what is the indicator of executive dominance? cabinet durability: a long-lasting cabinet is likely to be dominant… … and able to make sound decisions, but… … policy adoption differs from policy implementation. relevance of top bureaucrats with respect to the overall performance of democracies.

Executive dominance II how can we measure executive dominance? average cabinet I: cabinet ends with new elections, new prime minister, new party composition average cabinet II: party composition index of executive dominance: mean of measures I and II United States vs United Kingdom

Electoral systems electoral formula: plurality/majority vs. proportional system district magnitude: single-member vs. plurality districts electoral threshold total membership of elected body presidential/legislative elections malapportionment: unequal voting population interparty electoral links: vote combination

Disproportionality aggregate vote-seat share deviations does proportionality mean ‘more’ democratic? links between electoral and party systems: all electoral systems tend to yield disproportional results all electoral systems reduce electoral parties all electoral systems can create a parliamentary majority for parties non supported by a majority of votes

Interest groups pluralism vs. corporatism meanings of corporatism: groups are organized into national, specialized, hierarchical, and monopolistic peak organizations incorporation of interest groups into the policy formation

Key elements of corporatism it assures concertation i.e regular consultation by the leaders of peak organizations with each other and with the government that arrives at comprehensive binding agreements (tripartite pacts) IG are large in size and small in number coordinated into national peak organizations

Patterns of democracy: a critique challenging in its research design and useful as a overall introduction to key political concepts but: very (too?) ambitious, but not always very accurate (ex: Eu compared to other countries) conceptual ambiguities (ex: plural vs. non plural societies…) inadequacy of analytical criteria (es: independence Central Bank in the Federal-Unitary dimension)