Keyword

Axes

Upper Left Quadrant Details Upper Right Quadrant Details Lower Left Quadrant Details Lower Right Quadrant Details Details

Quadrants

Outline

The LRQ is the quadrant of party government parexcellence, the Westminster model, where a party controls the executive thanks to its majority in the legislature, with a "fusion of powers" between the two branches, and effectively directs the policy-making process through a cohesive cabinet. A different regime of party government is depicted in the LLQ, where a PR electoral system protects minorities' representation and maximizes the search for consensus in the forming of coalition cabinets (Lijphart 1984). The URQ describes the classical U.S. system of separation of power, in which the governmental agenda often results from the aggregation of different political interests, through a process of legislative logrolling. Cespite their direct electoral mandate, presidents depend on congressional support to carry on their program, the more so when their party has no majority in either chamber and the resulting balance of power is one of "divided government" (Shugart and Carey 1992). In the last quadrant (ULQ) presidential government becomes fully presidentialized (Tulis 1987, Poguntke and Webb 2005). By reviving the popular mandate through permanent campaigning, presidents take full advantage of their direct relationship with the electorate asserting their leadership on the decision-making process. In the age of mass communication, this may lead to an emphasis on issues with a wide and dramatizing impact, whether in the international or national arena, often setting presidents' action loose from constitutional constraints (Lowi 1985). [Fortunato Musella]