Abstract

This article analyses (in terms of "normal science") the two typologies of democratic forms of government elaborated by Arend Lijphart in the last two decades. According to Lijphart, the different forms of government are fundamental variables to define different types of democratic regime. Lijphart marks the difference between presidentialism and parliamentarism without including semipresidentialism in his typologies. On the contrary, as pointed out by Giovanni Sartori, the semipresidential form of government keeps a specific position, both in theoretical and empirical terms. Starting from Sartori's point of view, in the second part of the article, the author elaborates a new typology of democratic forms of government. Based on Lijphart's methodological criteria, the new typology includes, together with presidential and parliamentary, also semipresidential forms of government.