Is ‘Civilian Republican Leadership’ a Realistic Proposition, Especially in New Countries?

Abstract

It has been argued consistently in this volume that the key ‘presidential’ characteristic of presidential republics made these regimes particularly suited for ‘new countries’, but on the understanding that the satisfactory functioning of these republics also depends on what might be described loosely as a ‘good relationship’ being established between people and president. That requirement is particularly important in the ‘new countries’ throughout the period, which may be long, during which institutions are gradually built, the president being likely to be the only ‘fixture’, so to speak, on the basis of which these institutions are likely to be able to acquire, to use Huntington’s expression, ‘value and stability’ (1968, 12).