Law Commons^™

This paper analyzes the constitutional events in the summer of 2012 when Romania experienced the deepest constitutional crisis in the country’s post-communist history. It discusses the implications of these events for semi-presidentialism, a regime that splits executive power between the president and the prime minister, and which has become a popular choice for constitutional design in Europe and around the world. I ask how constitutional democracies that are still at a relatively early stage of political maturity can handle the pressures of ideological splits within the executive power. Is semi-presidentialism a good choice of regime for societies in transition to …