Fortuna e declino del semipresidenzialismo nell’Africa subsahariana francofona

Rise and decline of semi-presidentialism in francophone sub-Saharan Africa–Since the 1960s francophone sub-Saharian African countries abandoned the parliamentary system and experienced a culture of the executive dominance. Thissystem grants the President the full and final decision-making power both over the Government and the Parliament. Within this institutional architecture, in semi-presidential countriesthe presence of a Prime Minister plays in the praxis mostly a role in strengtheningthe presidential authority, because it frees up thePresident from political responsibility.Nevertheless the essay questions whether semi-presidential African systems, instead of being classed as de factohyper-presidentialism, deserve their own category. To this end, thestudy analyzes the peculiar semi-presidentialform of Government infrancophone African States in order to identify the roots, the status, the roleand the actualrelationshipshared between its three main actors: the President, the Prime Minister and the Parliament