Resumen de The Presidentialisation Thesis and Parliamentary Budget Offices

Usman W. Chohan, Kerry Jacobs

• This article examines the presidentialisation thesis through the lens of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). It considers the origins of the PBO in the American presidential system, where it has served to challenge the fiscal power of the president, and finds that PBOs perform an analogous function in parliamentary settings. The article then explores the PBO’s logic in parliamentary systems that exhibit evidence of presidentialisation, specifically examining the case of Canada. It finds that such budget offices mitigate the budgetary power of presidents, as well as prime ministers who are becoming more like presidents. They thereby offer a counterweight to the assertive fiscal tendencies of executives in presidentialising parliamentary systems.