INTRODUCTION

TO THE
LEGAL SYSTEM – MODULE 2
30048
Lecture 4, Forms of Government, 17 September 2018

Giacomo Tagiuri, a.y.

2018-2019
 Form of Government - Defini@on
•  The term form of government refers to the distribu@on of
power among branches of Government – the rela@onship
between cons%tu%onal bodies of equal independence.
•  Horizontal Rela%onship
•  We classify forms of government synchronically, within the
Liberal or Democra@c Pluralis@c State
–  You need Separa@on of Powers and Checks and Balances
•  We look at the various democra@c poli@cal regimes present in
the world: forms of government or regime types
 Why Classifying?
•  Classifying means to put order by assigning different names to
different forms of government.
•  This allows to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of
specific ins%tu%onal configura%ons.
–  E.G. Debates about the virtues of parliamentarism and the perils of
presiden1alism.
–  E.G. Studies on “Cons%tu%onal Design” try to determine what is the
op@mal form of government, given certain socio-poli@cal circumstances
–  These debates oXen seek to find the balance between government
effec1veness, poli1cal representa1veness, and respect for the Rule of
Law.
 Method of Classifica@on
•  We use the approach of Poli@cal Scien@st Robert Elgie
•  He dis@nguishes between Disposi%onal and Rela%onal Proper%es

•  Disposi%onal Proper%es •  Rela%onal Proper%es

–  the formal rules that divide (organize) power –  They concern the actual exercise of power
between various cons@tu@onal bodies:
–  Beyond formal rules
–  We find them in the wri\en Cons@tu@on or
in Cons@tu@onal Conven@ons/Cons@tu@onal –  We find them by observing the poli@cal
Prac@ce system and the prac@ce of government
–  Related to the government’s own disposi%on –  Elgie does not think rela@onal proper@es are
– its morphology or internal organiza@on a good basis for classifica@on and he prefers
to resort to disposi@onal proper@es.
–  External factors (poli@cs, electoral system) or
poli%cal circumstances do not influence this
classifica@on
 Three Disposi@onal Proper@es

•  According to Elgie three and only three aspects of any regime

can be called purely disposi@onal
 First Disposi@onal Property
•  Whether there is both a Head of State and a Head of
Government or whether just one ins%tu%on is to be found.

Vs.
 Second Disposi@onal Property
•  Whether the incumbents of these ins%tu%ons are popularly
elected.
 Third Disposi@onal Property

•  Whether the incumbents serve for a fixed term or a variable

term ?

•  This depends on the presence of a Rela%onship of Confidence

 The Approach of our course
•  By using these three disposi%onal proper%es
•  We produce a synchronic classifica%on of forms of government
•  We isolate 5 forms of government:
•  Parliamentary Execu@ve
•  Presiden@al Execu@ve
•  Semi-Presiden@al Execu@ve
•  Directorial Execu@ve
•  Neo-Parliamentary or Prime Ministerial Execu@ve
 Theory and prac@ce
•  The use of these proper@es allows to iden@fy a series of regime types
•  However, only 5 of these combina@ons may be found in the real world
Both HoS Are Do they serve for a
Elgie’s dispositional and HoG? incumbents fixed term?
properties: popularly
elected?

No. Form of HoS HoG HoS Ho G

government

Parliamentary Yes no no yes no

1 Executive

2 Presidential No yes - yes -

executive

Semi-presidential Yes yes no yes no

3

4 Directorial No no - yes -
executive

Neo- Yes no yes yes no

5 parliamentary/prim e
ministerial
 To bear in mind:

Form of
Government

Political Electoral
System system