University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 2010 Latin American Presidentialism in Comparative and Historical Perspective Tom Ginsburg Jose Antonio Cheibub Zachary Elkins Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Tom Ginsburg, Jose Antonio Cheibub & Zachary Elkins, "Latin American Presidentialism in Comparative and Historical Perspective," 89 Texas Law Review 1707 (2010). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Latin American Presidentialism in Comparative and Historical Perspective Jos6 Antonio Cheibub, Zachary Elkins" & Tom Ginsburg*** Since the time of Aristotle, comparative scholars have developed various alternative typologies to classify constitutional systems., One paradigmatic scheme focuses on executive-legislative relations. Some systems,2 we are told, are "presidential," in which a directly elected president serves a fixed term as both head of state and head of government. Others are "parliamentary," in which a legislative majority determines who will lead the government and for how long. A third model combines features of the two and is called "semi-presidential." 3 Each of these models of "government type" has an archetype: The United States is seen as the quintessential presidential system,4 the United Kingdom as the parliamentary model,5 and France as the semi-presidential model.6 The models are also seen as systemic, in that each implies a certain institutional configuration. So, presidential systems are thought to include a host of features (e.g., an executive veto) that are not typically found in * Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.