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Article A MIXED REPUBLIC – THE SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL FORM OF RULE?
Authors Roman Martyniuk
Name of magazine Legal journal «Law of Ukraine» (Ukrainian version)
Issue 1 / 2018
Pages 172 - 183
Annotation

The literature on statehood often uses the term “semi-presidential republic” to denote a mixed republican form of rule. However, this term is far from showing that a mixed republic does not have its own essence and distinctive logic according to which state power is organized, or that it tends to the presidential form of rule, given its normative features or functional characteristics. This manner of seeing the essence of a mixed republic is in discord with the fact of fundamental dissimilarity of some of its constitutive features with the characteristics of the presidential form of rule, and therefore it may not have scientifically acceptable justification. The purpose of this article is to give arguments about scientific incorrectness of using the term “semi-presidential republic” to refer to a mixed republican form of rule. The parliamentary system elements inherent in a mixed republic give reason to believe that, in the general outline, organization of state power in this form of rule is largely similar to the organization of state power in a parliamentary republic. The key features of parliamentarism in a mixed republic are the constitutional restrictions of the means available to the President to influence the organization and activities of the executive branch of power, and also the parliamentary way of forming the government, its parliamentary responsibility, and the institution of countersignature. In general, the correlation of elements of presidentialism and parliamentarism in a mixed republic is capable of determining its leaning towards one of the two classical republican forms of rule, and also of leaving it on an equal “distance” from both of them. Given the constitutive features of the mixed republican form of rule, it would be justified to believe that “semi-presidential republic” is not a perfect term to reflect the essence of what it refers to. This term is more appropriate to denote a specific transitional presidentialized republican form of rule which combines, in formal legal sense, the features of mixed and presidential republics, but in functional terms is more close to the latter. Such a transitional form of rule, being widespread among the post-Soviet states often demonstrating a rather eclectic combination of the elements of presidential and mixed republics, is actually a semi-presidential republic. It is not a mixed republic, since it lacks a necessary set of relevant legal attributes; and it is not a presidential form of rule since it contains some elements of a mixed republic and does not establish a “rigorous” division of power.

 

Keywords presidential republic; parliamentary republic; mixed republic; semipresidential republic, parliamentary method of forming the government; parliamentary responsibility of the government; dualism of the executive branch of power;
References

Bibliography 
 

Authored books 
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Edited and transleted books 
6. Olejnykov S, ‘Forma derzhavy’ [‘State Form’] v Cvik M, Tkachenko V, Petryshyn O, Zaghaljna teorija derzhavy i prava [General Theory of State and Law] (Pravo 2002) (in Ukrainian). 
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Thesis abstracts 
11. Protasova V, ‘Parlamentsko-prezydentska respublika: sutnist, osoblyvosti, riznovydy’ [‘Parliamentary-Presidential Republic: Essence, Features, Varieties’] (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, Nacionaljna Jurydychna Akademija Ukrajiny im Jaroslava Mudrogho 2008) (in Ukrainian). 

Dissertation 
12. Zaznaev O, ‘Poluprezidentskaja sistema: politiko-pravovoj analiz’ [‘Semi-Presidential System: Political and Legal Analysis’] (dis d-ra jurid nauk, Kazanskij gosudarstvennyj universitet im Uljanova-Lenina 2007) (in Russian). 

 

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