In the wake of the Arab Spring, this paper looks at the implications of choosing a semi-presidential system of government. The paper discusses the historical origins, structure, and corresponding distribution of power in a semi-presidential system. The paper then provides the pros and cons of adopting the semi-presidential system, and canvasses some of the conditions precedent for the success and/or failure of the semi-presidential system. The paper ends with a look at Portugal as a case study on the semi-presidential model.

The primer describes the nature and purpose of the presidential veto is and why it is frequently included as an executive power and important component of executive/legislative checks and balances. &nbspIt also describes drawbacks to the veto power and describes different design options and considerations.

This primer explores the ranges of roles and responsibilities that are sometimes assigned to a non-executive (symbolic) president in a parliamentary system.&ampnbsp This is different from a "hybrid" system of government where a president and prime-minister each have substantial power.&ampnbsp The primer also examines the election and tenure of non-executive presidents and provides examples of countries that incorporate a non-executive president.

This paper considers the options available for structuring the semi-presidential system under three headings: constitutional architecture; the distribution of executive powers; and security and emergency powers.

This paper appears as chapter 4 of International IDEA’s publication A Practical Guide to Constitution Building. It focuses on the design of the executive branch of government. The paper starts by setting out the various models of executive governments, including presidential, parliamentary and mixed systems. A discussion concerning the importance of design options for all political actors follows, along with a discussion of the importance of the political context within the state. Finally, the report discusses various design options for de-concentrating executive power.

This brief paper discusses the differences between parliamentary and presidential systems of government. &ampnbspThis paper identifies the crucial&ampnbspdistinction as the fact that under parliamentarism legislatures may remove the government via the approval of a vote of no-confidence.

This article, a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law, provides and introductory description of the main systems of government in democratic countries that seek to promote the rule of law.

This article discusses concepts of identity and citizenship as they pertain to constitutions, arguing that in order to be stable and peaceful, states must be impartial as between the diverse groups of their population. This idea is applied to the context of Sudan, where it is suggested that identity issues can be further protected, and stability achieved, through the promotion of various governing constitutional principles: human rights, the prohibition of discrimination, the right to citizenship, recognition of differences, and federalism.

This handbook takes a closer look at the issue of statelessness and its relationship with the concept of nationality. It first sets out the international legal framework, including the 1954 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Person, which addresses statelessness, and then sets out the international human rights and regional treaties that inform the legal concept of nationality. Next it discusses how to identify stateless persons, including the standards of evidence and minimum standards of procedural fairness, as well as the best way to protect stateless persons.

This is an extract from an Al-Raida quarterly journal issue focusing on citizenship and gender in the Arab world. This extract is a fact sheet on nationality laws throughout the Arab world. The information in this fact sheet is drawn from Freedom House country profiles.