Duverger, semi-presidentialism and the supposed French archetype

The concept of semi-presidentialism was first operationalised by Maurice Duverger. There are now 17 countries with semi-presidential constitutions in Europe. Within this set of countries France is usually considered to be the archetypal example of semi-presidentialism. This article maps the main institutional and political features of European semi-presidentialism on the basis of Duverger’s original three-fold schema. The most striking feature is the diversity of practice within this set of countries. This means that semi-presidentialism should not be operationalised as a discrete explanatory variable. However, there are ways of systematically capturing the variation within semi-presidentialism to allow cross-national comparisons. This diversity also means that France should not be considered as the archetypal semi-presidential country. At best, France is an archetypal example of a particular type of semi-presidentialism. Overall, Duverger’s main contribution to the study of semi-presidentialism was the original identification of the concept and his implicit insight that there are different types of semi-presidentialism. In the future, the study of semi-presidentialism would benefit from the development of theory-driven comparative work that avoids a reliance on France as the supposed semi-presidential archetype

Three waves of semi-presidential studies

This article reviews the scholarship on semi-presidentialism since the early 1990s. We identify three waves of semi-presidential studies. The first wave focused on the concept of semi-presidentialism, how it should be defined, and what countries should be classified as semi-presidential. The second wave examined the effect of semi-presidential institutions on newly democratized countries. Does semi-presidentialism help or hinder the process of democratic consolidation? The third wave examines the effect of semi-presidential institutions on both recent and consolidated democracies. Third-wave studies have been characterized by three questions: to what extent does the direct election of the president make a difference to outcomes; to what extent does variation in presidential power make a difference; and what other factors interact with presidential power to help to bring about differential outcomes? The article argues that the concept of semi-presidentialism remains taxonomically valid, but that the empirical scholarship on countries with semi-presidential institutions needs to respond to broader developments within the discipline if it is to remain relevant

Explaining the onset of cohabitation under semi-presidentialism

Semi-presidentialism – where the constitution provides for both a directly elected fixed-term president and a prime minister and cabinet collectively responsible to the legislature – is an increasingly common form of government. For many observers cohabitation is the Achilles heel of semi-presidentialism. This article aims to identify the conditions that are associated with the onset of cohabitation.We specify a number of hypotheses that predict the conditions under which cohabitation should occur.We then test our hypotheses on the basis of a new data set that records every case of cohabitation in all semi-presidential electoral democracies from 1989 to 2008 inclusive.We confirm that cohabi- tation is more likely to occur in countries with a premier-presidential form of semi-presidentialism and show that it is more likely to follow an election that occurs midway through a parliamentary or presidential term, and that when cohabitation follows a presidential election, it is likely to do so in a country where there is only a very weak president. Overall, we find that the conditions under which cohabitation is most likely to occur are also the ones where it is most easily managed. Thus, our findings imply that cohabitation is not likely to be as problematic as the existing literature would suggest

From CFTR biology toward combinatorial pharmacotherapy:expanded classification of cystic fibrosis mutations

More than 2000 mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) have been described that confer a range of molecular cell biological and functional phenotypes. Most of these mutations lead to compromised anion conductance at the apical plasma membrane of secretory epithelia and cause cystic fibrosis (CF) with variable disease severity. Based on the molecular phenotypic complexity of CFTR mutants and their susceptibility to pharmacotherapy, it has been recognized that mutations may impose combinatorial defects in CFTR channel biology. This notion led to the conclusion that the combination of pharmacotherapies addressing single defects (e.g., transcription, translation, folding, and/or gating) may show improved clinical benefit over available low-efficacy monotherapies. Indeed, recent phase 3 clinical trials combining ivacaftor (a gating potentiator) and lumacaftor (a folding corrector) have proven efficacious in CF patients harboring the most common mutation (deletion of residue F508, ΔF508, or Phe508del). This drug combination was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for patients homozygous for ΔF508. Emerging studies of the structural, cell biological, and functional defects caused by rare mutations provide a new framework that reveals a mixture of deficiencies in different CFTR alleles. Establishment of a set of combinatorial categories of the previously defined basic defects in CF alleles will aid the design of even more efficacious therapeutic interventions for CF patients

GR-891: a novel 5-fluorouracil acyclonucleoside prodrug for differentiation therapy in rhabdomyosarcoma cells

Differentiation therapy provides an alternative treatment of cancer that overcomes the undesirable effects of classical chemotherapy, i.e. cytotoxicity and resistance to drugs. This new approach to cancer therapy focuses on the development of specific agents designed to selectively engage the process of terminal differentiation, leading to the elimination of tumorigenic cells and recovery of normal cell homeostasis. A series of new anti-cancer pyrimidine acyclonucleoside-like compounds were designed and synthesized by structural modifications of 5-fluorouracil, a drug which causes considerable cell toxicity and morbidity, and we evaluated their applicability for differentiation therapy in human rhabdomyosarcoma cells. We tested the pyrimidine derivative GR-891, (RS)-1-{[3-(2-hydroxyethoxy)-1-isopropoxy]propyl}-5-fluorouracil, an active drug which shows low toxicity in vivo and releases acrolein which is an aldehyde with anti-tumour activity. Both GR-891 and 5-fluorouracil caused time- and dose-dependent growth inhibition in vitro; however, GR-891 showed no cytotoxicity at low doses (22.5 μmol l−1 and 45 μmol l−1) and induced terminal myogenic differentiation in RD cells (a rhabdomyosarcoma cell line) treated for 6 days. Changes in morphological features and in protein organization indicated re-entry in the pathway of muscular maturation. Moreover, GR-891 increased adhesion capability mediated by the expression of fibronectin, and did not induce overexpression of P-glycoprotein, the mdr1 gene product, implicated in multidrug resistance. New acyclonucleoside-like compounds such as GR-891 have important potential advantages over 5-fluorouracil because of their lower toxicity and their ability to induce myogenic differentiation in rhabdomyosarcoma cells. Our results suggest that this drug may be useful for differentiation therapy in this type of tumour. 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

“MINITRACKER” A PORTABLE S-BAND AUTOTRACK ANTENNA

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 13-15, 1981 / Bahia Hotel, San Diego, CaliforniaThe “Minitracker” is designed to be a highly portable S-Band autotrack antenna system, to be used to receive telemetry data from sounding rockets launched at remote launch sites when fixed-site telemetry trackers are not available. “Minitracker” uses a single channel mono-pulse RF feed with a four foot parabolic reflector. The tracker can be disassembled into small subassemblies and packed in plastic cases which can easily be shipped by commercial air freight. The controls consist of a 8 3/4" (22.225 cm) X 19" (48.26 cm) X 19" (48.26 cm) control console and an S-Band Receiver. The OSU “TRADAT” system can be used with “Minitracker” to provide trajectory data. This report will consist of a “Minitracker” system description which will include systems performance specifications and simplified circuit descriptions. The operation procedures section will consist primarily of aids in autotrack acquisition of target vehicles, and a brief description of information available when used in conjunction with the OSU built “TRADAT” system.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection