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Explaining the onset of cohabitation under semi-presidentialism

Elgie, Robert ORCID: 0000-0001-5334-4796 and McMenamin, Iain ORCID: 0000-0002-1704-390X (2011) Explaining the onset of cohabitation under semi-presidentialism. Political Studies, 59 (3). pp. 616-635. ISSN 1467-9248

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Abstract

Semi-presidentialism – where the constitution provides for both a directly elected fixed-term president and a prime minister and cabinet collectively responsible to the legislature – is an increasingly common form of government. For many observers cohabitation is the Achilles heel of semi-presidentialism. This article aims to identify the conditions that are associated with the onset of cohabitation.We specify a number of hypotheses that predict the conditions under which cohabitation should occur.We then test our hypotheses on the basis of a new data set that records every case of cohabitation in all semi-presidential electoral democracies from 1989 to 2008 inclusive.We confirm that cohabi- tation is more likely to occur in countries with a premier-presidential form of semi-presidentialism and show that it is more likely to follow an election that occurs midway through a parliamentary or presidential term, and that when cohabitation follows a presidential election, it is likely to do so in a country where there is only a very weak president. Overall, we find that the conditions under which cohabitation is most likely to occur are also the ones where it is most easily managed. Thus, our findings imply that cohabitation is not likely to be as problematic as the existing literature would suggest.

Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Semi-presidentialism; Cohabitation; Premier presidentialism; Presidentparliamentarism; Elections
Subjects:Social Sciences > Political science
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Law and Government
Publisher:Blackwell Publishing (Wiley)
Official URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2010.00870.x
Copyright Information:© 2011 Wiley
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:20745
Deposited On:28 Aug 2015 12:47 by Robert Elgie . Last Modified 05 Oct 2018 09:24

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