Can Presidentialism Work Like Parliamentarism?

Abstract

Inter‐institutional cooperation between the congress and the presidency may be the best way to promote good governance in a regime of separation of powers. In order to evaluate the performance of different political institutions, especially the different frameworks associated with ‘presidentialism’ and ‘parliamentarism’, we adopt the criterion that policy outcomes coinciding with the median voter's preference can produce the highest satisfaction or social utility. From this perspective, proportional representation in congress can be very appropriate since it tends to establish a close correspondence between the median party's and the median voter's preferences. Likewise, cooperation – rather than conflict or mutual checks – between the median party in congress and the presidency for both legislative decisions and cabinet formation can favour socially efficient outcomes. A survey of some recent institutional reforms in democratic presidential regimes in Latin America shows that ‘parliamentarization’ of presidentialism is gaining acceptance, although intermediate formulae may be more conflictual than a global, more coherent institutional reform.

Minority Presidents and Democratic Performance in Latin America

“…See Laver and Schofield 1990, 97. 7. This model draws on Krehbiel 1998; see also Colomer and Negretto 2005. 8. Some authors (Jones 1995) have argued that interbranch cooperation in minority presidencies improves when the percentage of legislative seats of the president's party is close to a majority; for instance, equal to or greater than 45 percent.…”

Legislatures in presidential systems: The Latin American experience

“…This is not to interpret the increasing role of the legislature in Latin America as evidence of a shift towards parliamentarism, as Colomer and Negretto have argued. 40 On the contrary, it is evidence of a stronger institutional differentiation within presidential systems. The Chilean case supports this thesis, as well as research on other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil, which has been used in this article.…”

Repensando la relación entre democracia y representación: algunas propuestas para ampliar el canon democrático

“…En lo relativo a estas cuestiones, la literatura especializada es extensa, comenzando por la discusión originada en torno a los regímenes presidenciales y parlamentarios (Cheibub, 2007). Esta discusión dio lugar a otros debates, como los referentes a los siguientes asuntos: la evaluación del desempeño de las formas proporcionales o mayoritarias de diseño constitucional (Powell, 2000); el carácter mayoritario o de consocios de las instituciones democrá-ticas (Lijphart, 2000); las dinámicas de la concepción neomadisoniana de las instituciones electorales (Carroll y Shugart, 2007); las ventajas del modelo centrípeto de la gobernanza democrática (Gerring y Thacker, 2008), y los mecanismos que, "parlamentarizando" a los sistemas presidenciales, permiten representar mejor las preferencias del votante mediano (Colomer y Negretto, 2005).…”