Causes of the instability of modern presidential systems in Latin America

The democratization of Latin American countries in the last two decades of the XX century led to the growth of political pluralism. Dozens of new political organizations, that were created in that period of time, began to claim the electoral base of traditional political forces, which had been one of the foundations of presidential rule in the previous historical period. In these circumstances, one of the characteristics of the Latin American presidential systems was clearly manifested, that is the excessive interdependence of the head of state and congress compared to the classic presidential system. Based on the data from the national electoral commissions of the Latin America countries from 1995 to 2022, the author comes to a conclusion that an increase in the level of fragmentation of party systems leads to a decrease of parliamentary support for the president. This situation, coupled with the lack of workable mechanisms for resolution of political crisis, which is also a typical characteristic of the political tradition of the Latin America, creates conditions for aggravating conflicts between the executive and legislative. Such electoral reforms as the transition from a proportional to a mixed electoral system, the introduction of general elections, and the abolition of the electoral barrier, can serve to reduce the likelihood of institutional crises.

Keywords

presidential system, Latin America, parliament, institutional conflicts, party system

Received

31.03.2022

Publication date

14.11.2022

Number of characters

32210

Cite

GOST	Kretov S. Causes of the instability of modern presidential systems in Latin America // Latin America – 2022. – Issue 11 C. 26-42 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://latamerica-journal.ru/S0044748X0022870-6-1 (circulation date: 29.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S0044748X0022870-6
MLA	Kretov, Stanislav "Causes of the instability of modern presidential systems in Latin America." Latin America 11 (2022):26-42. DOI: 10.31857/S0044748X0022870-6
APA	Kretov S. (2022). Causes of the instability of modern presidential systems in Latin America. Latin America (11), pp.26-42 DOI: 10.31857/S0044748X0022870-6

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