La "presidenzializzazione" e l'erosione del governo di partito nei sistemi parlamentari: il case del Regno Unito

This article starts from the observation that the de facto "presidentialization" of parliamentary democracies is now an empirical reality, and then proceeds to consider the implications for the party government model. It thus builds on the Poguntke and Webb argument in item 2, but takes the theoretical implications substantially further. Taking the classic case of the UK as an example, it argues that party government is being steadily undermined as the long-term conditions on which it has been sustained have altered to the benefit of increasingly powerful and autonomous individual leaders. The evidence reveals ways in which candidate-centred electoral processes, changes in intra-party patterns of power, and the growing structural power of Prime Ministers within the executive have combined to enhance the independence of leaders from their parties.