Presidential Activism: Understanding Informal institutions

Abstract

Formal institutions and constitutional powers have long stayed at the very center of attention in the literature on comparative presidential politics. Indeed the field has matured in terms of theory, measures and empirical studies on how formal institutions shape executive-legislative relations. Yet, the field struggles with how to approach informal powers and informal institutions. Finding common ground on definitions, theory, typologies, measures and hence empirical results on informal power is still a major challenge for presidential research. This panel addresses this gap by inviting empirical and theoretical papers focusing on informal institutions with regard to presidential activism and executive dynamics in presidential, semi-presidential and parliamentary regimes. We give prominence to comparative approaches but welcome single-case studies to the extent that they strive for advancing theory. The panel aims for covering different countries and regions.

Title	Details
Presidential Activism and Success in Foreign and Defense Policy: A Study of Portugal’s Premier-Presidential Regime	View Paper Details
Operating in the grey area: president’s non-constitutional private activity in a semi-presidential regime. An empirically grounded framework	View Paper Details
Informal powers as effective weapons of formally constrained presidents. Insights from parliamentary and semi-presidential cases	View Paper Details
Presidential activism and other determinants of presidential popularity in semi-presidential regimes	View Paper Details
Formally constrained but highly influential: Presidents’ going-public tactics in semi-presidential democracies	View Paper Details