Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rethinking Crises And The Accretion Of Executive Power: The "War On Terror" And Conditionality Evidence From Seven Political Systems, Riccardo Pelizzo, John E. Owens

riccardo pelizzo

External shocks to democratic systems are likely to threaten the stability of relations between the executive and the representative assembly. This article investigates the impact of the so-called “war on terror” on executive-assembly relations in comparative perspective. We analyze data from seven countries, which varied in terms of form of government, level of democracy, culture, social structure, and geographic location, to evaluate its effects. We find that whereas in some systems the “war on terror” altered the balance of power between the executive and the assembly, in other cases the extant balance of power was preserved. We postulate various conditions …