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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2018
Uno dei fenomeni più evidenti nell'evoluzione della scienza politica dell'ultimo ventennio è il ritorno alle tematiche istituzionali. Le forme di governo, i tipi di Stato, in breve — con tasso d'astrazione più elevato — le istituzioni politiche nel senso più classico del temine, hanno riacquistato status privilegiato nell'orizzonte dell'analisi politologica dopo un disinteresse durato diversi decenni (Linz e Valenzuela 1994; Pasquino 2001).
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 semipresiden-tialism 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.