The Perils of Parliamentarism in Contrast to Presidentialism in Democratic Transition

Research Article
Open access

The Perils of Parliamentarism in Contrast to Presidentialism in Democratic Transition

Mingxuan Yang 1*
  • 1 The University of Hong Kong    
  • *corresponding author 3468544465@qq.com
Published on 20 November 2023 | https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7048/21/20230035
LNEP Vol.21
ISSN (Print): 2753-7056
ISSN (Online): 2753-7048
ISBN (Print): 978-1-83558-121-6
ISBN (Online): 978-1-83558-122-3

Abstract

The paper raised some doubts on a few academic literature’s arguments that Parliamentarism is better than Presidentialism for new democracies in the transitional period. It instead found that parliamentarism could also lead to critical perils to democratic transition, at least in some particular political situations, like increasing the instability of the government, encouraging political speculation and polarization, and allowing ruling parties to self-benefit from the manipulated electoral system. Instead, presidentialism could be conducive to addressing these perils of parliamentarism and enable a more robust, stable, and successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy for many countries. This paper took examples of presidentialism in Philippine and Taiwan. Compared with presidentialism, parliamentarism has several key weaknesses. They include government instability under minority rule, polarization in countries with enormous social cleavages, encouraging politicians to pursue political speculation and defect their electorates, and the likelihood of electoral system maneuver by ruling parties. Thus, for new democracies, presidentialism may perform better than parliamentarism, at least on some occasions.

Keywords:

parliamentarism, presidentialism, democratization, political transition

Yang,M. (2023). The Perils of Parliamentarism in Contrast to Presidentialism in Democratic Transition. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,21,20-24.
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References

[1]. Juan Linz, The Perils of Presidentialism, Journal of Democracy (1:1, Winter 1990), pp.51- 69.

[2]. Cheibub, J. A. (2007). Presidentialism, parliamentarism, and democracy. Cambridge University Press.

[3]. Weaver, R. K. (1985). Are Parliamentary Systems Better? The Brookings Review, 3(4), 16-25.

[4]. Ostwald, Kai, & Oliver, Steven. (2020). Four arenas: Malaysia’s 2018 election, reform, and democratization. Democratization, 27(4), 1-19.

[5]. Teoh, S. (2018). Malaysia GE: Opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan set to form govt after winning simple majority. The Strait Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-ge-mahathir-claims-victory-but-unconfirmed-by-ec

[6]. Head, J. (2020). How Malaysia’s government collapsed in two years. British Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51716474.amp

[7]. Bäck, H., & Carroll, R. (2018). Polarization and gridlock in parliamentary regimes. The Legislative Scholar, 3(1), 2-5.

[8]. Myerson, R. B. (2004). Political Economics and the Weimar Disaster. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160(2), 187-209.

[9]. Higashijima, Masaaki and Kasuya, Yuko, The Peril of Parliamentarism? Executive-Legislative Relations and the Transition to Democracy from Electoral Authoritarian Rule (2014). APSA 2014 Annual Meeting Paper.

[10]. Tan, Netina, & Grofman, Bernard. (2018). Electoral rules and manufacturing legislative supermajority: Evidence from Singapore. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 56(3), 273-297.

[11]. Clark, C. (2002). Lee Teng-Hui and the emergence of a competitive party system in Taiwan. The American Asian Review, 20(2), 1.

[12]. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p535.

Cite this article

Yang,M. (2023). The Perils of Parliamentarism in Contrast to Presidentialism in Democratic Transition. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,21,20-24.

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities

ISBN：978-1-83558-121-6(Print) / 978-1-83558-122-3(Online)
Editor：Javier Cifuentes-Faura, Enrique Mallen
Conference website: https://www.icgpsh.org/
Conference date: 13 October 2023
Series: Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
Volume number: Vol.21
ISSN：2753-7048(Print) / 2753-7056(Online)

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References

[1]. Juan Linz, The Perils of Presidentialism, Journal of Democracy (1:1, Winter 1990), pp.51- 69.

[2]. Cheibub, J. A. (2007). Presidentialism, parliamentarism, and democracy. Cambridge University Press.

[3]. Weaver, R. K. (1985). Are Parliamentary Systems Better? The Brookings Review, 3(4), 16-25.

[4]. Ostwald, Kai, & Oliver, Steven. (2020). Four arenas: Malaysia’s 2018 election, reform, and democratization. Democratization, 27(4), 1-19.

[5]. Teoh, S. (2018). Malaysia GE: Opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan set to form govt after winning simple majority. The Strait Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-ge-mahathir-claims-victory-but-unconfirmed-by-ec

[6]. Head, J. (2020). How Malaysia’s government collapsed in two years. British Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51716474.amp

[7]. Bäck, H., & Carroll, R. (2018). Polarization and gridlock in parliamentary regimes. The Legislative Scholar, 3(1), 2-5.

[8]. Myerson, R. B. (2004). Political Economics and the Weimar Disaster. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160(2), 187-209.

[9]. Higashijima, Masaaki and Kasuya, Yuko, The Peril of Parliamentarism? Executive-Legislative Relations and the Transition to Democracy from Electoral Authoritarian Rule (2014). APSA 2014 Annual Meeting Paper.

[10]. Tan, Netina, & Grofman, Bernard. (2018). Electoral rules and manufacturing legislative supermajority: Evidence from Singapore. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 56(3), 273-297.

[11]. Clark, C. (2002). Lee Teng-Hui and the emergence of a competitive party system in Taiwan. The American Asian Review, 20(2), 1.

[12]. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p535.

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