Operating in the grey area: president’s non-constitutional private activity in a semi-presidential regime. An empirically grounded framework

During the past decade, presidential activity and its effects on democracy and policy have become major topics in the studies of semi-presidentialism. Constrained by the sharing of executive powers and motivated by the potentially resulting conflict with the government, presidents are assumed to constantly seek for new avenues of influence. Echoing the research field’s traditional emphasis on formal institutions, empirical studies on presidential activity have thus far largely focused on presidents’ constitutional prerogatives (vetoes, ministerial nominations, etc.). Methodologically, the emphasis on formal institutions and large-n correlational analysis has overshadowed more grounded and practice-oriented insights. Recently, scholars have started to pay more attention on informal institutions (i.e. uncodified structured and repeated processes). However, research on presidential activism must delve even deeper because influence-seeking presidents may and likely do also operate beyond institutionalized processes, in more ad hoc fashion. Besides ‘going public’, presidents may utilize their networks and linkages, for example with bureaucracy and parties, to exert influence in private. To start bridging this important gap, this study presents a framework that explicates the various private networks, linkages and mechanisms that a president can use to influence policy. In developing the framework, the study draws insight from several types of historical sources like memoirs and histories of institutions, and by interviewing actors of relevant elite networks. Besides introducing the framework, the study makes a methodological contribution by assessing the utility of the recently emerged method of political/administrative ethnography for the studies of presidential politics.