Paper Camp App Essay

The Perils of Presidentialism

Juan J. Linz

Journal of Democracy, Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 1990, pp. 51-69 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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THE PERILS OF PRESIDENTIALISM

Juan J. Linz

Juan J . Linz, Sterling Professor of Political and Social Science at Yule University, is widely known for his contributions to the study of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, political parties and elites, and democratic breakdowns and transitions to democracy. In 1987 he was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias prize in the social sciences. The following essay is based on a paper he presented in May 1989 at a conference in Washington, D.C. organized by the Latin American Studies Program of Georgetown University, with support from the Ford Foundation. An annotated, revised, and expanded version of this essay (including a discussion of semipresidential systems) will appear under the title "Presidentialism and Parliamentar-ism: Does It Make a Difference?" in a publication based on the conference being edited by the author and Professor Arturo Valenzuela of Georgetown University.

A s more of the world's nations turn to democracy, interest in alternative constitutional forms and arrangements has expanded well beyond academic circles. In countries as dissimilar as Chile, South Korea, Brazil, Turkey, and Argentina, policymakers and constitutional experts have vigorously debated the relative merits of different types of democratic regimes. Some countries, like Sri Lanka, have switched from parliamentary to presidential constitutions. On the other hand, Latin Americans in particular have found themselves greatly impressed by the successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy that occurred in the 1970s in Spain, a transition to which the parliamentary form of...