Law & Government

Biographical Details:

Robert Elgie gained a First Class Honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oriel College, Oxford University in 1987. He graduated with a PhD in Government from the London School of Economics, in 1991. Since this time, he has published 40 articles in international refereed journals, as well as four single-authored monographs, two co-authored books, seven edited and co-edited books, and 30 book chapters. He is the co-editor of the journal French Politics. He is also the lead co-editor of the prestigious Oxford Handbook of French Politics. He has received funding on four occasions from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, including a Senior Research Fellowship for 2009-2010 totalling ¿107,308. He has supervised numerous PhD students to successful completion. His work has been cited over 1,600 times on Google Scholar. Robert Elgie's research career has centred on the systematic study of institutions on political outcomes. He began by studying contemporary French politics. He then developed a general concern for the effect of executive institutions on political life. Central to this concern has been his work on semi-presidentialism to the extent that his definition has been adopted as the scientific standard. Initially, his work in this area focused on demonstrating why countries with seemingly similar semi-presidential institutions exhibited very different patterns of political leadership. Recently, his work has concentrated on whether semi-presidentialism helps or hinders the process of democratisation in young democracies. He has shown that certain semi-presidential institutions are more likely to cause conflict than others and that this conflict is likely to increase the likelihood that democracy will collapse. His work has received considerable external recognition. Twice he has been asked to brief the UK Ambassador designate to France (Sir John Holmes in 2001 and Sir Peter Westmacott in 2007). He invited talk include presentations at the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania, the Economic Policy Research Foundation Of Turkey, the United Nations Institute for Social Development (Geneva), and Taiwan Thinktank. In 2009 he was asked to provide ongoing advice to Christina Murray of the University of Cape Town, serving on the Kenyan Committee of Experts that drafted a new constitution for Kenya. He is also a member of the network of experts on the Constitution Building Processes (CBP) Programme at International IDEA. In this capacity, in April 2012 he was formally asked to provide a briefing report on Constituent Assembly of Nepal's proposed system of government.

Research Interests:

Semi-presidentialism, political Leadership, comparative politics, French politics

Selected Peer Reviewed Journals

• Robert Elgie. .
• Cristina Bucur and Robert Elgie. 2012. The development of the French executive: Endogenous Americanization. French Politics, 10, 4, pp389-402.
• Robert Elgie. 2012. The President of Ireland in comparative perspective. Irish Political Studies, 27, 4, pp502-521.
• Robert Elgie. 2012. Exogenous political institutions? Constitutional choice in post-independence Francophone sub-Saharan Africa. Political Research Quarterly, 65, 4, pp770-782.
• Robert Elgie and Christine Fauvelle-Aymar. 2012. Turnout under Semi-presidentialism: First- and Second-order Elections to National-Level Institutions. Comparative Political Studies, 45, 12, pp1598-1623.
• Robert Elgie. 2011. Presidentialism, Parliamentarism and Semi-presidentialism: Bringing Parties Back In. Government And Opposition, 46, 3, pp424-441.
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin. 2011. Explaining the Onset of Cohabitation under Semi-presidentialism. Political Studies, , pp616-635.
• Robert Elgie. 2011. Core executive studies two decades on. Public Administration, 89, 1, pp64-77.
• Francesco Cavatorta and Robert Elgie. 2010. The Impact of Semi-Presidentialism on Governance in the Palestinian Authority. Parliamentary Affairs, 63, 1, pp22-40.
• Robert Elgie. 2010. Semi-presidentialism, Cohabitation and the Collapse of Electoral Democracies 1990-2008. Government And Opposition, 45, 1, pp29-45.
• Robert Elgie. 2009. Duverger, Semi-presidentialism and the supposed French archetype. West European Politics, 32, 2, pp248-267.
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin. 2009. Journal publications from politics departments in Ireland 2003-2007: an update using the Hix method. European Political Science, 8, 1, pp104-112.
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin. 2008. Semi-presidentialism and Democratic Performance. Japanese Journal Of Political Science, 9, 3, pp323-340.
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin. 2008. Political fragmentation, fiscal deficits and political institutionalisation. Public Choice, 136, 3-4, pp255-267.
• Claire Devlin and Robert Elgie. 2008. The Effect of Increased Women's Representation in Parliament: The Case of Rwanda. Parliamentary Affairs, 61, 2
• Robert Elgie. 2008. The perils of semi-presidentialism. Are they exaggerated?. Democratization, 15, 1, pp49-66.
• Robert Elgie. 2007. Varieties Of Semi-Presidentialism And Their Impact On Nascent Democracies. Taiwan Journal Of Democracy, 3, 2, pp53-71.
• Robert Elgie. 2006. Why do governments delegate authority to quasi-autonomous agencies? The case of Independent Administrative Authorities in France. Governance, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp207-227.
• Robert Elgie and John Stapleton with Donal Quinn. 2006. Testing the decline of parliament thesis: The parliamentary activity of the head of government in Ireland, 1923-2002. Political Studies, 54, 2
• Robert Elgie. 2005. From Linz to Tsebelis: Three Waves of Presidential/Parliamentary Studies?. Democratization, Vol. 12, no. 1, pp106-122.
• Robert Elgie. 2005. A Fresh Look at Semi-Presidentialism. Variations on a Theme. Journal Of Democracy, Vol. 16, no. 3, pp98-112.
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin. 2005. Credible Commitment, Political Uncertainty, or Policy Complexity? Explaining Variations in the Independence of Non-Majoritarian Institutions in France. British Journal Of Political Science, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp531-548.
• Robert Elgie. 2004. Semi-Presidentialism: Concepts, Consequences and Contesting Explanations. Political Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3,, pp314-330.
• Robert Elgie and John Stapleton. 2004. The Parliamentary Activity of the Head of Government in Ireland (1923-2000) in Comparative Perspective. Journal Of Legislative Studies, Vol. 10, Nos. 2-3, pp154-173.
• Robert Elgie. 2003. Governance Traditions and Narratives of Public Sector Reform in France. Public Administration, Vol. 81, No. 1, , pp141-162.
• Robert Elgie and John Stapleton. 2003. The Parliamentary Activity of the Head of Government in Ireland (1923-2000) in Comparative Perspective. Journal Of Legislative Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, , pp37-56.
• Robert Elgie. 2002. The Politics of the European Central Bank: Principal-Agent theory and the Democratic Deficit. Journal Of European Public Policy, Vol. 9, No. 2, , pp186-200.
• Robert Elgie. 2002. La Cohabitation de Longue Duree: Studying the 1997-2002 Experience. Modern And Contemporary France, Vol. 10, No. 3,, pp297-311.
• Robert Elgie. 2001. Democratic Accountability and Central Bank Independence: A Reply to Various Critics. West European Politics, Vol. 24, No. 1, , pp217-221.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. The Difficult Art of Comparative European Politics. European Journal Of Political Research, 35, , pp465-482.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. Responsabilite Democratique et Independance de la Banque Centrale: La Banque Centrale Europeenne dans une Perspective Historique et Comparative. Revue Francaise D'administration Publique, No. 92,, pp635-649.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. The Changing French Political System. West European Politics, Vol. 22, No. 4, , pp1-19.
• Robert Elgie. 1998. The Classification of Democratic Regime Types: Conceptual Ambiguity and Contestable Assumptions. European Journal Of Political Research, Vol. 33, No. 2, , pp219-238.
• Robert Elgie. 1998. Democratic Accountability and Central Bank Independence: Historical and Contemporary, National and European Perspectives. West European Politics, Vol. 21, No. 3, , pp53-76.
• Robert Elgie. 1997. Two-Ballot Majority Electoral Systems. Representations, Vol. 34, No. 2,, pp89-94.
• Robert Elgie. 1997. Models of Executive Politics: A Framework for the Study of Executive Power Relations in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Regimes. Political Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2, , pp217-231.
• Robert Elgie. 1996. The French Presidency - Conceptualizing Presidential Power in the Fifth Republic. Public Administration, Vol. 74, No. 2, , pp275-291.
• Robert Elgie. 1993. From the Exception to the Rule: The Use of Article 49-3 of the Constitution Since 1958. Modern And Contemporary France, Vol. 1, No. 1,, pp17-26.
• Robert Elgie and Moshe Maor. 1992. Accounting for the Survival of Minority Governments: An Examination of the French Case (1988-1991). West European Politics, Vol. 15, No. 3, , pp57-74.
• Robert Elgie. 1992. The Prime Minister's Office in France: A Changing Role in a Semi-Presidential System. Governance, Vol. 5, No. 1, , pp104-121.
• Robert Elgie and Steve Griggs. 1991. A Quoi Sert le PS? The Influence of the Parti Socialiste on Public Policy Since 1981. Journal Of Modern And Contemporary France, No. 47,, pp20-29.
• Robert Elgie and Howard Machin. 1991. France: The Limits to Prime-Ministerial Government in a Semi-Presidential system. West European Politics, Vol. 14, No. 2, , pp62-78.
• Robert Elgie. 1991. La Methode Rocard. Existe-t-elle?. Journal Of Modern And Contemporary France, No. 44,, pp11-19.

Selected Books

• Robert Elgie. Semi-Presidentialism: Sub-Types And Democratic Performance, Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Robert Elgie, Sophia Moestrup and Yu-Shan Wu (eds.). Semi-presidentialism and Democracy, Palgrave, 2011.
• Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup (eds.). Semi-presidentialism in Central and Eastern Europe, Manchester University Press, 2008.
• Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup (eds.). Semi-presidentialism Outside Europe, Routledge, 2007.
• Robert Elgie. Political Institutions in Contemporary France, Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Robert Elgie. Divided Government in Comparative Perspective, Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Robert Elgie (ed.). The Changing French Political System, Frank Cass, 2000.
• Robert Elgie and Steve Griggs. French Politics: Debates and Controversies, Routledge, 2000.
• Robert Elgie (ed.). Semi-presidentialism in Europe, Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Robert Elgie and Helen Thompson. The Politics of Central Banks, Routledge, 1998.
• Robert Elgie (ed.). Electing the French President. The 1995 Presidential Election, Macmillan, 1996.
• Robert Elgie. Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies, Macmillan, 1995.
• Robert Elgie. The Role of the Prime Minister in France, 1981-1991, Macmillan, 1993.

Selected Chapters

• Robert Elgie. 2013. Executive leadership in semi-presidential systems.
• Robert Elgie. 2013. The French presidency under Nicolas Sarkozy.
• Robert Elgie. 2012. Political Leadership in Old and New Democracies. , pp272-291.
• Robert Elgie. 2011. Maurice Duverger: A Law, A Hypothesis and A Paradox. Masters of Political Science, vol. 2
• Robert Elgie. 2011. Semi-presidentialism: An increasingly common constitutional choice. Semi-presidentialism and Democracy
• Robert Elgie and Petra Schleiter. 2011. Variation in the durability of semi-presidential democracies. Semi-presidentialism and Democracy
• Robert Elgie, Sophia Moestrup and Yu-Shan Wu. 2011. Semi-presidentialism: What Have We Learned?. Semi-presidentialism and Democracy
• Robert Elgie. 2009. Studying the French Presidency Under the Fifth Republic: Past Approaches and Future Perspectives. Beyond Stereotypes: The French Fifth Republic at Fifty, pp25-40.
• Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup. 2008. Semi-presidentialism: a common regime type, but one that should be avoided?. Semi-presidentialism in Central and Eastern Europe, pp1-13.
• Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup. 2008. The impact of semi-presidentialism on the performance of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Semi-presidentialism in Central and Eastern Europe, pp239-257.
• Robert Elgie. 2007. France. European Politics, pp17-30.
• Robert Elgie. 2007. What is semipresidentialism and where is it found?. Semi-presidentialism Outside Europe, pp1-13.
• Robert Elgie and Sophia Moestrup. 2007. The Choice of Semi-presidentialism and Its Consequences. Semi-presidentialism Outside Europe, pp237-248.
• Robert Elgie. 2005. The political executive. Developments in French Politics 3, pp70-87.
• Robert Elgie. 2005. France: Stacking the Deck. The Politics of Electoral Systems, pp119-136.
• Robert Elgie and Peter Fitzgerald. 2004. Political Leadership: The President and the Taoiseach. Politics in the Republic of Ireland, pp305-327.
• Robert Elgie. 2003. Institutions and Voters: Structuring Electoral Choice. The French Voter. Before and After the 2002 Elections, pp110-125.
• Robert Elgie. 2001. Cohabitation: Divided Government French-Style. Divided Government in Comparative Perspective, pp106-126.
• Robert Elgie. 2001. Departmental Secretaries in France. The Changing World of Top Officials. Mandarins or Valets?, pp11-40.
• Robert Elgie. 2001. Divided Government in Comparative Perspective. Divided Government in Comparative Perspective, pp209-225.
• Robert Elgie. 2001. What is Divided Government?. Divided Government in Comparative Perspective, pp1-20.
• Robert Elgie. 2001. Constitutions and Constitution-Building: A Comparative Perspective. Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe, Vol. 1, pp25-47.
• Robert Elgie. 2000. Staffing the summit: France. Administering the Summit: The Administration of the Core Executive in Developed Countries, pp225-244.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. France. Semi-presidentialism in Europe, pp67-85.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. Political leadership. Politics in the Republic of Ireland, 3rd ed., pp232-248.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. The politics of semi-presidentialism. Semi-presidentialism in Europe, pp1-21.
• Robert Elgie. 1999. Semi-presidentialism and comparative institutional engineering. Semi-presidentialism in Europe, pp281-299.
• Robert Elgie. 1996. The institutional logics of presidential elections. Electing the French President, The 1995 Presidential Election, pp51-72.
• Robert Elgie and Vincent Wright. 1996. The French presidency: the changing public policy environment. Electing the French President, The 1995 Presidential Election, pp172-194.
• Robert Elgie. 1995. France and Europe. The European Union at the Crossroads, The Problems of Implementing the Single Market Project, pp39-55.
• Robert Elgie. 1994. Christian Democracy in France: the politics of electoral constraint. Christian Democracy in Europe. A Comparative Perspective, pp155-167.

Reviews

• Prof Robert C Elgie. .

Selected Non-peer Reviewed Journals

• Prof Robert C Elgie. .

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• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin, Credible commitment, political uncertainty, or policy complexity? Explaining variations in the independence of non-majoritarian institutions in France, Political Studies Association of the UK, 2004, - , Lincoln
• Robert Elgie and John Stapleton, Testing the decline of parliament thesis. The parliamentary activity of the head of government in Ireland 1923-2002, Political Studies Association of the UK, 2005, - , Leeds
• Robert Elgie, Exogenous political institutions? Constitutional choice in post-independence Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, Political Studies Association of the UK, 03-APR-12 - 05-APR-12, Belfast, 1 - 13
• Robert Elgie, Explaining variation in the adoption of the French constitutional model in post-independence Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, Joint ECPR/IPSA conference, 16-FEB-11 - 19-FEB-11, São Paulo, Brazil
• Robert Elgie and Petra Schleiter, Government Accountability and the Survival of Semi-Presidential Democracies, Annual conference of the American Political Science Association, 02-SEP-10 - 05-SEP-10, Washington DC
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin, Explaining the onset of cohabitation under semi-presidentialism, Annual conference of the American Political Science Association, 02-SEP-10 - 05-SEP-10, Washington DC
• Robert Elgie, Presidentialism, parliamentarism and semi-presidentialism. Which is best and how would we know?, Legislative-Executive Relations, Government Systems and Turkey, 19-JUL-10 - 19-JUL-10, Ankara, Turkey
• Robert Elgie, Maestri of Political Science: Maurice Duverger, General conference of the European Consortium for Political Research, 10-SEP-09 - 12-SEP-09, Potsdam
• Robert Elgie and Petra Schleiter, Variation in the durability of semi-presidential democracies, International Political Science Association, 12-JUL-09 - 16-JUL-09, Santiago
• Robert Elgie, Semi-presidentialism in Western Europe, Semi-Presidentialism and Democracy: Institutional Choice, Performance, and Evolution, 17-OCT-08 - 18-OCT-08, Taipei
• Robert Elgie, Semi-presidentialism: An increasingly common constitutional choice, Semi-Presidentialism and Democracy: Institutional Choice, Performance, and Evolution, 17-OCT-08 - 18-OCT-08, Taipei
• Robert Elgie, The perils of semi-presidentialism. Are they exaggerated?, Constitutional Principles of Authority Structure¿, International Conference held by the Public Institution Parliamentary Cooperation Centre to Mark the 15th Anniversary of Adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, 12-NOV-07 - 12-NOV-07, Vilnius, Lithuania
• Robert Elgie, The perils of semi-presidentialism. Are they exaggerated?, Dynamics of Transformation in East Asia, 20-SEP-07 - 22-SEP-07, Edinburgh, UK
• Robert Elgie, The perils of semi-presidentialism: are they exaggerated?, European Consortium for Political Research, 06-SEP-07 - 08-SEP-07, Pisa
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin, Varieties of Semi-Presidentialism: Cohabitation, Cabinet Stability and Non-Partisan Prime Ministers, American Political Science Association, 29-AUG-07 - 02-SEP-07, Chicago
• Robert Elgie, VARIETIES OF SEMI-PRESIDENTIALISM AND THEIR IMPACT ON DEMOCRATIC PERFORMANCE, After The Third Wave. Problems and Challenges for New Democracies, 13-AUG-07 - 14-AUG-07, Taipei
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin, Divided executives and democratization, American Political Science Association, 30-AUG-06 - 03-SEP-06, Philadelphia
• Robert Elgie, Why do governments delegate authority to quasi-autonomous agencies? The case of Independent Administrative Authorities in France, European Consortium for Political Research, 07-SEP-05 - 09-SEP-05, Budapest
• Robert Elgie and Iain McMenamin, Credible commitment, political uncertainty, or policy complexity? Explaining variations in the independence of non-majoritarian institutions in France, American Political Science Association, 29-AUG-04 - 02-SEP-04, Chicago
• Robert Elgie, Semi-Presidentialism: Concepts, Consequences and Explanatory Variables, Semi-presidentialism and Nascent Democracies, 24-OCT-03 - 25-OCT-03, Taipei
• Robert Elgie, La cohabitation de longue durée: Studying the 1997-2002 experience, Assessing the Jospin government, 12-JAN-02 - 12-JAN-02, Oxford
• Robert Elgie, Agent-Centred, Principal-Centred and Mixed Accounts of Delegation: an Application to the French Case, Delegating Powers to Independent Agencies, 06-DEC-01 - 07-DEC-01, Lausanne
• Robert Elgie, Agent-Centred, Principal-Centred and Mixed Accounts of Delegation: an Application to the French Case, American Political Science Association, 29-AUG-01 - 02-SEP-01, San Francisco
• Robert Elgie, The evolution of semi-presidentialism in the Fifth Republic, American Political Science Association, 28-AUG-00 - 02-SEP-00, Washington DC
• Robert Elgie, Policy-making in the European Central Bank and problems of political accountability, What Choices Do Democracies Have in Globalizing Economies?, 27-APR-00 - 28-APR-00, Geneva