Presidents in Parliamentary Systems: Putting their Power into Place

The attention political science paid to presidents as considerable players in non-presidential systems is limited and mostly focused on semi-presidential systems. In the following I argue the functional logic behind parliamentary and semi-presidential systems is often similar and should therefore be treated similarly. Presidential power in these countries is often discussed with the idea of discrepancy between constitution and reality. However as this study demonstrates the discrepancy is to a certain extent overemphasized, and does not well enough reflect the variety in the scope of action for presidents in parliamentary systems. Therefore my concept of presidential power in this research project follows the idea about a pre-structuring role of the constitution. With this idea I address a fundamental question in the study of transformation politics and institutional change: How and to what extent does a constitution enforce and structure the development of constitutional reality and the behaviour of the agency? This relation of law and power is often diverse and follows a variety of patterns. This diversity is the centre of my research project with the focus on how power and law are mutually dependent and mutually bounded. Evaluating the empirical data based on 500 constitutional documents with a factor analysis (principal axis) I developed 4 types of presidential institutions according to their level of competences in standard and exceptional situations. Combining a large-n measurement with the functional description of selected political situations this approach provides evidence for aspects barely considered in comparative political sciences: 1) the role of powerful presidents in parliamentary regimes, 2) the emphasis on legislative veto as key feature of presidential power and 3) the categorization of presidential power beyond classic system type discussion (as I compare Hungary, Ukraine and Portugal as one type or Georgia, Peru and France as another type).