Political Institutions in East Timor: Semi-presidentialism and Democratization.

• Author: Feijo, Rui Graca
• Position: Book review

Political Institutions in East Timor: Semi-presidentialism and Democratization. By Lydia M. Beuman. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2016. Hardcover: 141pp.

After the 1999 referendum which led to its independence from Indonesia, East Timor underwent a unique political process. The United Nations (UN) transitional authority was given unprecedented powers to lay the foundations for a democratic polity. Disregarding academic wisdom on pre-requisites for democratic survival encapsulated in Juan Linz's dictum "no state, no Rechtsstaat, no democracy" (1991), Timor-Leste embarked on a simultaneous process of state-building and democracy-building. In this context, the Constituent Assembly adopted a government system not found elsewhere in Southeast Asia, but sometimes found in young democracies in other parts of the world: semi-presidentialism, a system in which a popularly elected fixed-term president exists alongside a prime minister and cabinet officials who are collectively responsible to the legislature.

Lydia M. Beuman presents a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the formative years of this innovative experience. Based on her doctoral thesis, the book attains the highest standards of academic proficiency: it includes a comprehensive survey of the existing literature; is grounded in fieldwork during which the author engaged with all the relevant actors; and provides a cogent analytical framework.

The book begins with an introduction to the theoretical debates on the relationship between semi-presidentialism and democracy, followed by a characterization of the Timorese case, positing that it falls into the "premier-presidential" sub-type of semi-presidentialism, i.e., one in which the survival of government depends solely on parliamentary support. Chapter 3 offers a historical overview of the framework through which semi-presidentialism was derived. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the notions of "cohabitation" and "divided government" during two different periods under President Xanana Gusmao, before Chapter 6 addresses the "unified majority government" under President Jose Ramos-Horta. Chapter 7 discusses the main findings pertaining to the relationship between semi-presidentialism and democracy, and suggests that the former "facilitated institutional conflict" (p. 121) even if at the end of the day democracy survived. Finally, in Chapter 8, Beuman offers a Postscript surveying the main developments under the presidency of Taur Matan Ruak.

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