The goal of essay is to identify two key features of U.S. constitutional
design integral to the success of U.S. federal and presidential
separation of powers, but which are not widely known and are therefore
not widely copied when newly emerging democracies around the world
choose to write a constitution. First, the focus is on the fact that American
federalism is characterized by a much larger number of state entities than
exist in most federal regimes and on the fact that state boundary lines are
drawn pretty arbitrarily and cross-cut regional and ethnic cleavages. In
Part II, the focus is on five features of the U.S. system of presidential separation
of powers which make out presidents much weaker than the presidents
of other countries with presidential systems.

Keywords: Institutional Design; Federalism; Separation of Powers; Presidentialism

Does Institutional Design Make a Difference?