Download PDF by Cindy Skach: Borrowing Constitutional Designs: Constitutional Law in

After the cave in of communism, a few thirty nations scrambled to craft democratic constitutions. strangely, the constitutional version they ordinarily selected was once neither the natural parliamentary version present in such a lot of Western Europe on the time, nor the presidential version of the Americas. particularly, it was once semi-presidentialism--a infrequent version recognized extra as a rule because the "French type." This constitutional version melded parts of natural presidentialism with these of natural parliamentarism. particularly, semi-presidentialism mixed a popularly elected head of nation with a head of presidency in charge to a legislature.

Borrowing Constitutional Designs questions the hasty adoption of semi-presidentialism by way of new democracies. Drawing on wealthy case reports of 2 of an important international locations for eu politics within the 20th century--Weimar Germany and the French 5th Republic--Cindy Skach deals the 1st theoretically targeted, and traditionally grounded, research of semi-presidentialism and democracy. She demonstrates that constitutional selection issues, simply because less than convinced stipulations, semi-presidentialism constructions incentives that make democratic consolidation tricky or that really give a contribution to democratic cave in. She bargains a brand new thought of constitutional layout, integrating insights from legislation and the social sciences. In doing so, Skach demanding situations either democratic conception and democratic perform. This booklet could be welcomed not just via students and practitioners of constitutional legislation but in addition through these in fields reminiscent of comparative politics, ecu politics and heritage, and foreign and public affairs.