Democratic Executives and Forms of Government

In an effort to explain how political instability and failure emerge various studies have found that presidential systems are more predisposed to such problems than parliamentary systems (Stepan & Skach, Przeworski, Lijphart). In this reaction paper I put forward following thesis: both presidential and parliamentary democracy have their advantages and disadvantages, and the strengths of each type of democracy should not be underestimated. First, I agree with Mainwaring (1993) that scholars in their criticism have overlooked some strengths of presidential systems. I would argue that presidentialism, particularly if it is carefully designed, has some advantages over parliamentarism. In my view, Linz does not sufficiently consider this point. Moreover, the viability of presidentialism can be improved by providing the president with limited legislative power, encouraging the formation of parties that are in a reasonable manner disciplined in the legislature, and precluding extreme fragmentation of the party system.…