WILLIAM CROWTHER Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Director of the UNCG Center for Legislative Studies, USACARLOS JALALI Assistant Professor at the University of Aveiro, PortugalJIH-WEN LIN Research Fellow in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, TaiwanKIMITAKA MATSUZATO, Professor at the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, JapanOLEH PROTSYK Senior Research Associate at European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, Germany. BENJAMIN REILLY Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University, AustraliaPETRA SCHLEITER Tutorial Fellow in Politics (St Hilda's College), and Lecturer in Politics (Department of Politics and International Relations), University of Oxford, UKYU-CHUNG SHEN Assistant Professor at Tunghai University, TaiwanJUNG-HSIANG TSAI Assistant Professor at National Chung Cheng University, Political Science Department, Taiwan

• Semi-Presidentialism and Democracy; R.Elgie , S.Moestrup & Y-S.Wu PART I: VARIETIES OF SEMI-PRESIDENTIALISM Semi-Presidentialism and Democracy: Institutional Choice, Performance and Evolution; R.Elgie The Study of Semi-Presidentialism: An Holistic Approach; Y-S.Wu PART II: THE PERFORMANCE OF SEMI-PRESIDENTIALISM: GENERAL AND REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES Overview of the Performance of Semi-Presidentialism; S.Moestrup Parliamentary Cohesion and Government Formation in Semi-Presidential Democracies; J-W.Lin Semi-Presidentialism in Western Europe; R.Elgie Semi-Presidentialism under Post-Communism; O.Protsyk Semi-Presidentialism and Democratic Development in East Asia; B.Reilly Semi-Presidentialism in Africa; Patterns and Trends; S.Moestrup PART III: THE PERFORMANCE OF SEMI-PRESIDENTIALISM: COUNTRY PERSPECTIVES The President as a Backseat Driver: Portugal's Evolving Semi-Presidentialism; C.Jalali Taiwan: Democratic Consolidation under Presidential Supremacy; Y-S.Wu & J-H.Tsai Semi-Presidentialism and Parliamentary Oligarchy in Post-Orange Ukraine; K.Matsuzato Moldova's Transition from Semi-Presidentialism: Parliamentary Intentions, Presidential Outcome; W.Crowther Semi-Presidentialism in the Weimar Republic: A Failed Attempt at Democracy; Y-C.Shen Semi-Presidentialism and Democracy: What Have we Learnt?; R.Elgie