Semi-presidential system

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Semi-presidential system

The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a prime minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of Cabinet in the Executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician....
and a president

President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state

State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
. It differs from a parliamentary republic

Parliamentary republic

A parliamentary republic or parliamentary constitutional republic is a form of a republic which operates under a parliamentary system of government ....
in that it has a popularly elected head of state

Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political state....
who is more than a purely ceremonial figurehead

Figurehead (metaphor)

In politics, a figurehead, by metaphor with the carved figurehead at the prow of a sailing ship, is a person who holds an important title or office yet executes little actual power....
. It differs from the presidential system

Presidential system

A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not wikt:accountable and which cannot, in normal circumstances, wikt:dismiss it....
in that the cabinet, although named by the president, is responsible

Ministerial responsibility

Ministerial responsibility or Individual ministerial responsibility is a constitutional convention in governments using the Westminster System that a Cabinet minister bears the ultimate responsibility for the actions of their ministry or department....
to the legislature

Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
, which may force the cabinet to resign through a motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence

A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion traditionally put before a parliament by the parliamentary opposition in the hope of defeating or weakening a Executive , or, rarely by an erstwhile supporter who has lost confidence in the government....
.

The term was first coined in a 1978 work by political scientist Maurice Duverger

Maurice Duverger

Maurice Duverger is a French jurist, sociologist and politician.Starting his career as a jurist at the University of Bordeaux, Duverger became more and more involved in political science and in 1948 founded one of the first faculties for political science in Bordeaux, France....
to describe the French Fifth Republic

French Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current Republicanism Constitution of France of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing a parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system....
, which he dubbed a regime semi-présidentiel.

Division of powers
How the powers are divided between president and prime minister can vary greatly between countries.

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Division of powers

How the powers are divided between president and prime minister can vary greatly between countries. In France, for example, in case of cohabitation

Cohabitation (government)

Cohabitation in government occurs in semi-presidential systems, such as France's system, when the president of France is from a different political party than the majority of the members of parliament....
whereas the president and the prime minister come from opposing parties, the president is responsible for foreign policy

Foreign policy

A state's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors....
and the prime minister for domestic policy

Domestic policy

Domestic policy presents decisions, laws, and programs made by the government which are directly related to issues in the country.See also: Public policy...
. In this case, the division of powers between the prime minister

Prime minister

President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
is not explicitly stated in the constitution, but has evolved as a political convention

Constitutional convention (political custom)

Alternative meaning: Constitutional convention A constitutional convention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state....
. In Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, by contrast, this particular aspect of the separation of powers is explicitly stated in the constitution

Constitution of Finland

The Constitution of Finland is the supreme source of national law of Finland. It defines the basis, structures and organisation of government, the relationship between the different constitutional organs, and lays out the fundamental rights of Finnish citizens....
: "foreign policy is led by the president in cooperation with the cabinet".

Cohabitation

Semi-presidential systems may sometimes experience periods in which the President and the Prime Minister are from differing and opposing political parties. This is called "cohabitation

Cohabitation (government)

Cohabitation in government occurs in semi-presidential systems, such as France's system, when the president of France is from a different political party than the majority of the members of parliament....
", a term which originated in France when the situation first arose in the 1980s. In most cases, cohabitation results from a system in which the two executives are not elected at the same time or for the same term. For example, in 1981, France elected both a Socialist

Socialist Party (France)

The Socialist Party is the largest left-wing politics political party in France. It replaced the French Section of the Workers' International in 1969....
president and legislature, which yielded a Socialist premier. But whereas the president's term of office was for seven years, the National Assembly

National Assembly

The National Assembly is either a legislature, or the lower house of a bicameral legislature in some countries. The best known National Assembly, and the first legislature to be known by this title, was that established during the French Revolution in 1789, known as the National Assembly ....
only served for five. When, in the 1986 legislative election, the French people elected a right-center Assembly, Socialist President Mitterrand was forced into "cohabitation" with a rightist premier.

Cohabitation can create an effective system of checks and balances

Separation of powers

Separation of powers, a term ascribed to France Age of Enlightenment political philosopher Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, is a model for the governance of democracy states, having its origins in an ancient idea of mixed government....
or a period of bitter and tense stonewalling, depending on the attitudes of the two leader

Leadership

Leadership is one of the most salient aspects of the organizational context. However, defining leadership has been challenging. The following sections discuss several important aspects of leadership including a description of what leadership is and a description of several popular theories and styles of leadership....
s, the ideologies of their parties, or the demands of their constituencies. As a typical example, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
n politics for several years witnessed a bitter struggle between the President and the Prime Minister, belonging to different parties and elected separately, over the negotiations with the LTTE to resolve the longstanding civil war

Sri Lankan civil war

The Sri Lankan Civil War is the name given to the ongoing conflict on the island-nation of Sri Lanka. Since 23 July 1983, there has been on-and-off civil war, predominantly between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a Separatism armed organization which fights for the creation of an Independence state named...
.

External links

, United Nations Development Program (n.d.).