NATIONAL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS,

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NATIONAL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS,
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Constitutions and Formal Structures of Government

• Traditional tripartite division of power
  Executive
• Strong executives go back to role of
  Spanish/Portuguese kinds during the reconquest
• Center of governmental power since independence
  in Latin American states
• President/dictators tendeded to remain in office
  for decades in the first century after
  independence
• Nation building
• Violence
• Monarchical tradition

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Latin American Political Systems Historically
Favor Executive Power

• Spain and the adelantados
• Tentativeness of imperial power on the large
  estates
• Destruction of central authority in the
  independence struggle

• Gen. Manuel Rosas (Argentina)

• CAUDILLOS

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More on Executive Dominance

• Longevity in power was accompanied by
• human rights abuses
• Development of cult of personality
• Denigration of rules, procedures and the law

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Longevity of personalistic presidencies spawns
limits on reelection in Second Wave Democracies

• Diaz in Mexico (1877-1910)
• Juan Vicente Gomez in Venezuela (1907 1935)
• Trujillo in the Dominican Republic (1932-1961)

• Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic)

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Presidentialism Predominates in the Third Wave
but

• Limits on reelection dissipate
• One additional presidential term becoming more
  common in Third Wave democracies
• Presidential dictators appear in the
  twenty-first century?

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Constitutions and Formal Structures of Government

• More on the executive
• Multiple executive a failure (Uruguay)
• Some experimentation with parliamentary system
• Brazil (1961-63)
• Peru prime minister assists the president in
  administering the bureaucracy
• Vice presidents
• viewed with suspicion
• Sometimes bypassed when presidency becomes vacant

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Constitutions and Formal Structures of Government

• Traditional tripartite division of power
• Bicameral most common
• States and regions represented in upper chamber
• Population based lower chambers

• Legislative

• Argentine National Congress

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Constitutions and Formal Structures of Government

• Common in smaller and centralized states
• Questioning of the utility of upper chamber in
  Venezuelan constitution of 1999

• UNICAMERAL

• El Salvador Legislative Assembly

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Strengthening the Legislative Institution

• Generally subservient to the executive
• Tradition of executive dominance
• Personalism is culturally valued
• Patronage tends to flow from the executive
• Party discipline of individual legislators
• Efforts to increase autonomy/power of legislature
• Brazil 1992
• Venezuela 1993

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Constitutions and Formal Structures of Government

• National court system
• Most law based on code model (Roman law modified
  by Napoleon)
• Dependent on executive whim in traditional
  dictatorships
• Special courts
• Military (fuero)
• Labor)
• State courts traditionally tied to local
  political structure
• Municipal courts relatively minor importance
• Traffic violations
• Enforcement of zoning

• Brasilia
• Supreme Court of Brazil

• JUDICIARY

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Checks and Balances Judiciary

• Justices named for a fixed term
• Writs of AMPARO

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Beyond the Tripartite Division of Constitutional
Powers

• Peoples Power (ombudsman function)
• Electoral Power
• National Electoral Council named through
  political interaction involving national
  executive, legislature and political parties
• Regional or state electoral councils report to
  National Electoral Council

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Autonomy of State Local Governments

• Characteristic of larger countries
• Provides some independence for regional leaders
• Local culture and customs have more influence
• Often violated in practice

• Boundaries and powers of regional governments
  laid out in constitution

• Federalism

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Centralism remains a powerful force

• Regional governments function as administrative
  subdivisions of the national government
• Characteristic of small countries
• Local culture and customs less given less
  importance

• El Salvador

• Regional governments administrative subdivisions
  of national government

• Unitary state organization

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Checks and Balances State Local Governments

• Decentralization currently in vogue
• More participation
• More efficiency in resource allocation
• Strong resistance continues
• Opposition to decentralization remains
  deep-seated
• Castro in Cuba
• Chavez in Venezuela