The case for proportional presidentialism

A conversation with Lee Drutman

I’ve long been a proponent of parliamentary democracy as a superior model to American-style presidentialism, drawing on arguments pioneered by the late Juan Linz. At the same time, Lee Drutman has been making the case for proportional representation as a solution to the toxic polarization that makes presidential systems so unstable.

In my view, PR and parliamentarism tend to go together like peanut butter and jelly.

But Drutman and Scott Mainwaring have an interesting new report out making the case that there are many examples of successful presidential systems with proportional legislatures. This is an intriguing idea even if you like proportional representation since proportional elections to the House can be created through the normal legislative process rather than overhauling the entire constitution system.

In our conversation we talk about all this — plus implications for the senate, state legislatures, cabinet formation and much more.

As usual, a transcript is available below for paying members (and you can get SB Audio in your podcast player here) — Slow Boring is the same low price it was when we launched over three years ago and it’s never been a better value.