chapter 18
...................................................................................................................................................COMPARATIVE
EXECUTIVE–
LEGISLATIVE
RELATIONS
...................................................................................................................................................matthew słberg shugart
The great expansion of constitution writing, especially after the fall of European
and then Soviet Communism after 1989 , has generated a profusion of scholarship
about the eVects of diVerent constitutional systems of executive–legislative rela-
tions. The purpose of this chapter is to consider how the two basic democratic
regime types—parliamentary and presidential—diVer fundamentally through how
they structure the relations of the executive to the legislative branch in either a
hierarchicalor atransactionalfashion. In a hierarchy, one institution derives its
authority from another institution, whereas in a transaction, two (or more)
institutions derive their authority independently of one another.
The distinction between hierarchies and transactions is critical, because in a
democracy, by deWnition, the legislative power (or at least the most important part
of it) is popularly elected. Where parliamentary and presidential systems diVer is in
how executive power is constituted: Either subordinated to the legislative assembly,
- I acknowledge the research assistance and advice of Royce Carroll and Mo ́nica Pacho ́n-Buitrago.