1. Comparative political economics
Lecture 4
Paolo Graziano

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 ( )

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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)