Overview

The Presidentialization of Politics shows that the politics of democratic societies is moving towards a presidentialized working mode, even in the absence of formal institutional changes. These developments can be explained by a combination of long-term structural changes in modern politics and societies' contingent factors which fluctuate over time. While these contingent, short-term factors relate to the personalities of office holders, the overall political agenda, and the majority situation in parliament, there are several structural factors which are relatively uniform across modern nations. First, the internationalization of modern politics (which is particularly pronounced within the European Union) has led to an 'executive bias' of the political process which has strengthened the role of political top elites vis-à-vis their parliamentary groups and/or their parties. Their predominance has been amplified further by the vastly expanded steering capacities of state machineries which have severely reduced the scope of effective parliamentary control. At the same time, the declining stability of political alignments has increased the proportion of citizens whose voting decisions are not constrained by long-standing party loyalties. In conjunction with the mediatization of politics, this has increased the capacity of political leaders to by-pass their party machines and to appeal directly to voters. As a result, three interrelated processes have led to a political process increasingly moulded by the inherent logic of presidentialism: increasing leadership power and autonomy within the political executive; increasing leadership power and autonomy within political parties; and increasingly leadership-centred electoral processes. The book presents evidence for this process of presidentialization for 14 modern democracies (including the US and Canada). While there are substantial cross-national differences, the overall thesis holds: modern democracies are increasingly following a presidential logic of governance through which leadership is becoming more central and more powerful, but also increasingly dependent on successful immediate appeal to the mass public. Implications for democratic theory are considered.

Full Product Details

Author:   Thomas Poguntke (Professor of Political Science, Keele University) ,  Paul Webb (Professor of Politics, University of Sussex)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.578kg
ISBN:  

9780199218493

ISBN 10:   0199218498
Pages:   378
Publication Date:   26 April 2007
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

1: Thomas Poguntke and Paul Webb: The Presidentialization of Politics in Democratic Societies: A Framework for Analysis The Presidentialization of Democracy in Democratic Societies 2: Richard Heffernan and Paul Webb: The British Prime Minister: Much More Than 'First Among Equals' 3: Thomas Poguntke: A Presidentializing Party State? The Federal Republic of Germany 4: Mauro Calise: Presidentialization, Italian Style 5: Ingrid van Biezen and Jonathan Hopkin: The Presidentialization of Spanish Democracy: Sources of Prime Ministerial Power in Post-Franco Spain 6: Stefaan Fiers and Andre Krouwel: The Low Countries: From 'Prime Minister' to President-Minister 7: Karina Pedersen and Tim Knudsen: Denmark: Presidentialization in a Consensual Democracy 8: Nicholas Aylott: 'President Persson' How Did Sweden Get Him? 9: Herman Bakvis and Steven B. Wolinetz: Canada: Executive Dominance and Presidentialization 10: Ben Clift: Dyarchic Presidentialization in a Presidentialized Polity: The French Fifth Republic 11: Heikki Paloheimo: Finland: Let the Force Be with the Leader. But Who Is the Leader? 12: Marina Costa Lobo: The Presidentialization of Portuguese Democracy? 13: Reuven Y. Hazan: The Failure of Presidential Parliamentarism: Constitutional versus Structural Presidentialization in Israel's Parliamentary Democracy 14: Sergio Fabbrini: The Semi-Sovereign American Prince: The Dilemma of an Independent President in a Presidential Government 15: Paul Webb and Thomas Poguntke: The Presidentialization of Contemporary Democratic Politics: Evidence, Causes, and Consequences Index

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