Measuring Presidential Power: A Review of Contemporary Methods

Abstract

The article presents a critical review of the contemporary methods of measuring presidential power in political science. The author analyzes these methods, describing each and demonstrating their advantages and disadvantages. When discussing mistakes in the measurement of presidential powers, the author tries to remove some of the problems associated with the measurement. He modifies Krouwel’s method based on measuring the presidential score and parliamentary score that allows us to “weigh” the presidential and parliamentary components of any form of government, whether presidential, parliamentary, or semi-presidential. The author codes ten variables. He suggests a method of measuring based on the calculation of the index of the form of government (IFG), which is calculated by subtracting the parliamentary score from the presidential score. A positive IFG indicates the attraction of a system to presidentialism, and negative its shift to parliamentarism. The index analysis of forms of government opens up opportunities to gain knowledge about the volume of presidential powers in different countries, to develop a typology of regimes, to determine the relationship between the form of government and the consolidation of democracy, and to track the dynamics of regimes.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n14p569