The literature on statehood often uses the term “semi-presidential republic” to denote a mixed republican form of rule. However, this term is far from showing that a mixed republic does not have its own essence and distinctive logic according to which state power is organized, or that it tends to the presidential form of rule, given its normative features or functional characteristics. This manner of seeing the essence of a mixed republic is in discord with the fact of fundamental dissimilarity of some of its constitutive features with the characteristics of the presidential form of rule, and therefore it may not have scientifically acceptable justification. The purpose of this article is to give arguments about scientific incorrectness of using the term “semi-presidential republic” to refer to a mixed republican form of rule. The parliamentary system elements inherent in a mixed republic give reason to believe that, in the general outline, organization of state power in this form of rule is largely similar to the organization of state power in a parliamentary republic. The key features of parliamentarism in a mixed republic are the constitutional restrictions of the means available to the President to influence the organization and activities of the executive branch of power, and also the parliamentary way of forming the government, its parliamentary responsibility, and the institution of countersignature. In general, the correlation of elements of presidentialism and parliamentarism in a mixed republic is capable of determining its leaning towards one of the two classical republican forms of rule, and also of leaving it on an equal “distance” from both of them. Given the constitutive features of the mixed republican form of rule, it would be justified to believe that “semi-presidential republic” is not a perfect term to reflect the essence of what it refers to. This term is more appropriate to denote a specific transitional presidentialized republican form of rule which combines, in formal legal sense, the features of mixed and presidential republics, but in functional terms is more close to the latter. Such a transitional form of rule, being widespread among the post-Soviet states often demonstrating a rather eclectic combination of the elements of presidential and mixed republics, is actually a semi-presidential republic. It is not a mixed republic, since it lacks a necessary set of relevant legal attributes; and it is not a presidential form of rule since it contains some elements of a mixed republic and does not establish a “rigorous” division of power.

Bibliography 
 

Authored books 
1. Ardan F, Francija: gosudarstvennaja sistema [France: The State System] (Juridicheskaja literatura 1994) (in Russian). 
2. Chirkin V, Glava gosudarstva: sravnitelno-pravovoe issledovanie [Head of State: Comparative Law Study] (Norma 2010) (in Russian). 
3. Protasova V, Parlamentsjko-prezydentsjka respublika: sutnistj, osoblyvosti, riznovydy [Parliamentary-Presidential Republic: Essence, Features, Varieties] (Pravo 2009) (in Ukrainian). 
4. Simonishvili L, Formy pravlenija: istorija i sovremennost [Forms of Government: History and Modernity] (Flinta: MPSI 2007) (in Russian). 
5. Zaznaev O, Poluprezidentskaja sistema: teoreticheskie i prikladnye aspekty [Semi- Presidential System: Theoretical and Applied Aspects] (Kazanskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet im Uljanova-Lenina 2006) (in Russian). 

Edited and transleted books 
6. Olejnykov S, ‘Forma derzhavy’ [‘State Form’] v Cvik M, Tkachenko V, Petryshyn O, Zaghaljna teorija derzhavy i prava [General Theory of State and Law] (Pravo 2002) (in Ukrainian). 
7. Sartori Dzh, Porivnjaljna konstytucijna inzhenerija: doslidzhennja struktur, motyviv i rezuljtativ [Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes] (O Moroz per, I Hrytsaik red, ArtEk 2001) (in Ukrainian). 
8. Zaznaev O, ‘Dihotomija versus trihotomija: problema tipologii sistem pravlenija v politologii’ [‘Dichotomy Versus Trichotomy: Typology Problem of Government Systems in Political Science’] v Farukshin M, Problemy politicheskoj Nauki [Problems of Political Science] (Centr Innovacionnyh Tehnologij 2005) (in Russian). 

Articles 
9. Chirkin V, ‘Netipichnye formy pravlenija v sovremennom gosudarstve’ [‘Atypical Forms of Government in Modern State’] (1994) 1 Gosudarstvo i pravo 109 (in Russian). 
10. Shatilo V, ‘Prezydent u mekhanizmi derzhavnoji vlady: dejaki pytannja vitchyznjanoji ta zarubizhnoji teoriji i praktyky’ [‘President in the State Power Mechanism: Some Issues of National and Foreign Theory and Practice’] (2014) 2 Visnyk Akademiyi advokatury Ukrajiny 12 (in Ukrainian). 

Thesis abstracts 
11. Protasova V, ‘Parlamentsko-prezydentska respublika: sutnist, osoblyvosti, riznovydy’ [‘Parliamentary-Presidential Republic: Essence, Features, Varieties’] (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, Nacionaljna Jurydychna Akademija Ukrajiny im Jaroslava Mudrogho 2008) (in Ukrainian). 

Dissertation 
12. Zaznaev O, ‘Poluprezidentskaja sistema: politiko-pravovoj analiz’ [‘Semi-Presidential System: Political and Legal Analysis’] (dis d-ra jurid nauk, Kazanskij gosudarstvennyj universitet im Uljanova-Lenina 2007) (in Russian).