21st World Congress of Political Science | IPSA - AISP July 12-16 2009 Santiago, Chile Session | Executive - Legislative Relations Panel | The Organization of Government in Presidential Democracies Coordinators | Prof. Carlos Huneeus – Prof. Liliana de Riz ! "# $%&’ ( ) *+ ,-.(%’#&-./"" 0 12+ ,-.(%’#&"&.’. THE GOVERNMENT IN TWO SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS: FRANCE AND PORTUGAL IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE * Gianluca Passarelli ) «…the boundaries of government are unclear; it is not even always the case that governments are sufficiently coherent internally to deserve being given a collective label. The idea of government is more an abstract concept that a universal reality. Jean Blondel [The Organization of Governments, 21] Starting the analysis of two semi-presidential governments having in mind this higlithing “definition” by one of most heminent scholars of Government is certainly encouranging in facing difficulties. Nevertheless, I cannot and I dont want move away from both stressing and explaining similarities and differencies in the government organization and structure. The better way in trying to do it still remains the comparison [Blondel 2005]. France and Portugal have the same form of government: semi-presidential. From the institutional point of view semi-presidentialism shows a President of the Republic elected (directly or not) that coexists with a Prime Minister who is accountable to the Parliament [Sartori 1994]. The direct popular election of the Head of State - in both countries - confers an additional legitimacy with respect to the formal prerogatives that are they attributed, although it is the internally established equilibrium of the political system that determine the actual capacities, and the relative effectiveness, of intervention in the political and institutional dynamics. Nevertheless, if presidential powers in semi-presidential systems have been investigated - much more at the formal level than at the practice-political ones - the literature is less vast on the understanding of the government functioning and organization. Therefore, in this paper I am interested in analyzing the governmental organization: the ministers’ work- activity, and that of other governmental structures and/or actors lato sensu (even if not having a ministerial relevance). In particular, I would orient the paper more on the analysis of the government’s functioning through the perspective of the form of government, trying to highlight a beat more the literature on the semi- presidential government (may be less investigated, in this field, vis-à-vis the presidential and parliamentary ones). So, my interest is focused on how the semi-presidential government functions: hierarchically or collegially [Blondel & Manning 2002]; on how they are strucutured, divided or unified; on the backgrounf of * ) 3 *4 5 * * * ! 6 7 * * ( ! * 4 * ) 3 *4 * 8*( * 9* 4 3* * 3 ) 1 : 9 ; )<; = 9 :>! * ? ( * 1* * 3* * 1