Presidential and Semi-Presidential Regimes: Institutional Dynamics and Political Leadership

Long established research on presidential systems in the Americas and more recent scholarship on semi-presidential systems in Europe and elsewhere, are gradually moving beyond the relative impact of constitutional regime types on political outcomes. Recent studies are more attentive to sub-regime variables and to institutional variations within the main constitutional categories. Key institutional factors including inter-institutional conflict and policy coordination, cabinet formation and coalition building, president-party relations, electoral system factors, and specific presidential powers, are nowadays at the forefront. Following up on the successful Sections on presidential politics from the ECPR General Conferences in Prague 2016 and Oslo 2017, and the Joint Session of Workshops in Nicosia 2018, this Section seeks to forge ahead on comparative research within the field. Panels and Papers will be presented with the ambition of advancing theory and empirical research on the institutional dynamics of presidential and semi-presidential regimes. Comparative approaches will be used, also in single case studies. Panels will explore the relevant dimensions of contemporary research on presidential and semi-presidential regimes such as inter-institutional coordination, party-president relations, government formation, veto and decree powers, political leadership and policy-making capacity.