FWIW, here’s a Vox article arguing that gridlock from presidential systems isn’t just bad in terms of “normal” policy outcomes, but can also lead to crises of legitimacy if polarization is too high (in which case the executive and legislative branches may both claim to speak for the people while disagreeing, and democratic principles won’t necessarily say how to resolve the disagreement), which runs the risk of collapsing the entire political system:
FWIW, here’s a Vox article arguing that gridlock from presidential systems isn’t just bad in terms of “normal” policy outcomes, but can also lead to crises of legitimacy if polarization is too high (in which case the executive and legislative branches may both claim to speak for the people while disagreeing, and democratic principles won’t necessarily say how to resolve the disagreement), which runs the risk of collapsing the entire political system:
https://www.vox.com/2015/3/2/8120063/american-democracy-doomed
My professor Hans Noel is featured in the article. Nice.