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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Citizenship Deficits In Latin American Democracies, Maxwell A. Cameron
Citizenship Deficits In Latin American Democracies, Maxwell A. Cameron
Maxwell Cameron
There is little evidence of a crisis of electoral democracy in Latin America, yet many of the region’s democratic regimes are unstable. Recently, Latin American democracies have been threatened more by the unconstitutional and illegal actions of democratically elected leaders than by attempted military coups or systematic electoral fraud. The separation of powers is sometimes violated in subtle ways that do not necessarily interrupt electoral democracy. Such threats have been inadequately theorized in the literature. Theorizing the separation of powers could help the international community to monitor the progress or erosion of democracy in the Western Hemisphere. The proposed agenda …
Non-Median And Condorcet-Loser Presidents In Latin America: A Factor Of Instability, Josep M. Colomer
Non-Median And Condorcet-Loser Presidents In Latin America: A Factor Of Instability, Josep M. Colomer
Josep M. Colomer
Both the longer duration of present democratic regimes in Latin America in comparison with past historical periods and their high levels of political instability can be partly explained by the role of electoral rules. In this paper several electoral rules are evaluated for their results on the basis of more than 111 presidential and 137 congressional elections in 18 Latin American countries during the current emocratic periods. First, a focus is cast on the probability that elected presidents have the support of the median voter’s first preference, which is a proxy for the winner’s popular acceptance or rejection. The frequency …