Borrowing Constitutional Designs
Constitutional Law in Weimar Germany and the French Fifth Republic
Cindy Skach
To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/
After
the collapse of communism, some thirty
countries scrambled to craft democratic constitutions. Surprisingly,
the constitutional model they most often chose was neither the pure
parliamentary model found in most of Western Europe at the time, nor
the presidential model of the Americas. Rather, it was
semi-presidentialism–a rare model known more generally as the "French
type." This constitutional model melded elements of pure
presidentialism with those of pure parliamentarism. Specifically,
semi-presidentialism combined a popularly elected head of state with a
head of government responsible to a legislature. Borrowing Constitutional Designs questions the hasty adoption of semi-presidentialism by new democracies.
"Cindy Skach has produced a compelling and important book. Combining theoretical discussion with sustained historical analysis, Borrowing Constitutional Designs
is a well-written and -executed example of the 'new institutionalism'
that seems to have swept across the social sciences in recent
years."–Amalia D. Kessler, Law and Politics Book Review
Paper | $19.95 / £13.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-14672-0
Cloth | $37.50 / £26.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12345-5