Prime ministerial autonomy and intra-executive conflict under semi-presidentialism

Abstract This article answers why intra-executive conflict varies across semi-presidential democracies. The literature verifies that competition tends to be higher when the president holds less power dismiss cabinet, coexists with a minority government, or president’s party is not represented in cabinet. paper, therefore, integrates these factors construct an index of prime ministerial autonomy, proposing its relationship probability by inverted U-shaped curve. That is, minister subordinated elected president, conversely, enjoys greater room manoeuvre executive affairs likelihood low. In contrast, significant confrontation emerges claims constitutional legitimacy rein and controls certain degree. study hypotheses using data on seventeen democracies Europe between 1990 2015.