반대통령제에 관한 비교법적 고찰

Semi-presidential system is generally viewed as a governmental system in which there is both a directly elected president and a prime minister who is responsible to the legislature. Many countries, such as France and Russia choose a semi-presidential system as their system of government. France is probably the world's best-known model for semi-presidential system and it’s experience contrast sharply with that of Russia. The Russian system is unfavorable for fostering and maintaining a democratic nation. Due to the weak party system in Russia, the balance of executive power between the president and the prime overwhelmingly favors the president, allowing the former to rule as a dictator, without control of the latter or the legislature. On the other hand, because of institutionalizing a strong party system, the French semi-presidential system is a flexible system which respect the checks and balances of power between the branches. Futhermore the French president constitutionally is not able to dismiss the prime minister. So he has no choice but to depend to more democratic processes of conflict resolution, instead of peremptorily ruling the country. Finally, I think that two requirements for operating semi-presidential system must be met: there must be a stable party system and the constitutional balance of power between the president and the prime minister or between the president and the legislature.