Features and types of governmental cabinets as descriptors of semi-presidential system of government in European countries

Abstract

The article deals with the essence and attributes of semi-presidential system of government, mainly in European countries, in particular on the basis of outlining and operationalising the features and types of governmental cabinets as a descriptor of semi-presidentialism. On this basis, the author found a correlation between the influence of the institutions of the head of state and parliament on the formation of different types of governmental cabinets in countries with semi-presidential system of government.It is clear that party governmental cabinets (primarily majority, not minority ones and coalition rather than single-party ones), which are the predominant characteristic of the countries whose political regimes are democratic ones, are dominant in European semi-presidential countries. Instead, non-party governmental cabinets are rare and are the characteristic of semi-presidential countries with mainly undemocratic (autocraticor hybrid) political regimes (including presidential or president-oriented governmental cabinets), but less often with democratic political regimes (particularly as technocratic governmental cabinets).