Introduction: Presidential Republics with “Moderating Power”

Abstract

This chapter introduces the book’s purpose: to discuss the emergence and performance of semi-presidential regimes with “moderating powers” vested in their presidents, and their contribution to democratic transitions and consolidation. The intellectual origins of “moderating power” are traced to Benjamin Constant, and the suggestion for its use in modern times to the work of Maurice Duverger. A justification for the choice of Portugal—a pioneer in the choice of semi-presidentialism in the Third Wave of Democratization—and Timor-Leste—a country that once was a Portuguese colony which emerged as an independent nation in the beginning of the twenty-first century—is presented, based on a discussion of the “diffusion model” of Lusophone constitutionalism. The chapter concludes with theoretical and methodological considerations that underpin this empirical study.