This chapter sets Finland, Lithuania, and Romania in a comparative context of semi-presidentialism in Europe. It justifies the selection of cases by including them in a broader set of semi-presidential regimes and uses this comparison to provide a range of basic and institutional data for setting the stage for the subsequent chapters on executive coordination. It provides key indicators on semi-presidential subtypes (premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism): level of democracy, presidential power, intra-executive conflict, and cohabitation. Drawing on public opinion surveys, it also assesses general levels of institutional trust with an emphasis on public support for the presidency.