Presidentialism in Crisis or Parliamentarism by Other Means? Presidential impeachments in Brazil and Latin America

The goal of this article is to set the impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in the context of the broader literature on presidential breakdowns in Latin America. Going against the Linzian thesis of systemic instability, we argue that presidential systems in Latin America have found inst...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Kasahara, Yuri, Marsteintredet, Leiv
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2018
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)
Repository:Revista de Ciências Sociais
Language:Portuguese
OAI Identifier:oai:periodicos.ufc:article/19270
Online Access:http://www.periodicos.ufc.br/revcienso/article/view/19270
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Presidentialism
Latin America
Brazil
Presidential Breakdown
Comparative Politics
Presidencialismo
América Latina
Brasil
Interrupção de mandato
Política comparada
Description
Summary:The goal of this article is to set the impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in the context of the broader literature on presidential breakdowns in Latin America. Going against the Linzian thesis of systemic instability, we argue that presidential systems in Latin America have found institutional mechanisms to deal with crisis between the Executive and Legislative branches. It does not mean, however, that the solutions for the deadlocks are uncontroversial. Issues of legitimacy and legality, as well as a highly polarized political environment, characterize the majority of cases of presidential breakdowns mobilized by the Legislative. Taking this broader context and the recent Brazilian case, we propose some institutional mechanisms in presidential systems that could facilitate solving political deadlocks between branches of government.