Sorry I haven't made any posts in two weeks, but I've been working on a novel. My book is about Gilded Age New York and the assassination of James Garfield. . . .

Anyway, one interest of mine in political science is parliamentarism versus presidentialism. One theory I have about presidentialism is that since a president is an elected king, his whole family, wife, children, siblings, become important in a way that princes and queen consorts are in monarchies. This tendency to make a big deal about a president's relatives is one symptom of presidential democracies being less issues-oriented than parliamentary ones.

This story from France supports my theory about presidentialism being about symbols and ceremony. It is about on how presidential hopefuls in France are beginning to use their families as political props, as American presidential hopefuls do.

http://www.economist.com/World/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3485211

Another problem with presidentialism is its well-documented tendency to slip into authoritarianism. I am happy to hear that Ukraine's parliament has recently changed its constitution to make the president weaker.

- posted by jsbennett70 @ 4:03 PM