Perils of parliamentarism? Political systems and the stability of democracy revisited. Hiroi, T. & Omori, S. Democratization, 16(3):485–507, June, 2009. Publisher: Routledge _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340902884598
Perils of parliamentarism? Political systems and the stability of democracy revisited [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Parliamentary systems are generally regarded as superior to presidential ones in democratic sustenance. This article contributes to the debate on the relationship between systems of government and the survival of democracy by bringing in a new perspective and analysing the experiences of 131 democracies during 1960–2006. We argue that systems of government do matter, but their effects are indirect; they exert their influence through societies' prior democratic records. Confirming the conventional argument, our data analysis shows that uninterrupted parliamentary democracies face significantly lower risks of a first breakdown than their presidential counterparts. Contrary to the common understanding, however, we find that the risk of a democratic breakdown can be higher for parliamentary regimes than for presidential regimes among the countries whose democracy has collapsed in the past. Furthermore, the risk of a previously failed democracy falling again grows as (the risk of) government crises increase(s). Hence our study questions the common belief that parliamentary systems are categorically more conducive to democratic stability than presidential ones.
@article{hiroi_perils_2009,
	title = {Perils of parliamentarism? {Political} systems and the stability of democracy revisited},
	volume = {16},
	issn = {1351-0347},
	shorttitle = {Perils of parliamentarism?},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340902884598},
	doi = {10.1080/13510340902884598},
	abstract = {Parliamentary systems are generally regarded as superior to presidential ones in democratic sustenance. This article contributes to the debate on the relationship between systems of government and the survival of democracy by bringing in a new perspective and analysing the experiences of 131 democracies during 1960–2006. We argue that systems of government do matter, but their effects are indirect; they exert their influence through societies' prior democratic records. Confirming the conventional argument, our data analysis shows that uninterrupted parliamentary democracies face significantly lower risks of a first breakdown than their presidential counterparts. Contrary to the common understanding, however, we find that the risk of a democratic breakdown can be higher for parliamentary regimes than for presidential regimes among the countries whose democracy has collapsed in the past. Furthermore, the risk of a previously failed democracy falling again grows as (the risk of) government crises increase(s). Hence our study questions the common belief that parliamentary systems are categorically more conducive to democratic stability than presidential ones.},
	number = {3},
	urldate = {2022-08-05},
	journal = {Democratization},
	author = {Hiroi, Taeko and Omori, Sawa},
	month = jun,
	year = {2009},
	note = {Publisher: Routledge
\_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340902884598},
	keywords = {democratic breakdown, democratization, parliamentarism, presidentialism},
	pages = {485--507},
}

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