El Parlamento hoy

Área de Política y Gestión Públic

Why do presidents fail? political leadership and the Argentine crisis (1999–2001)

This article explores why Argentine president Fernando de la Rúa (1999–2001) failed to govern and the factors that prevented him from completing his constitutional mandate. This study draw on current literature about leadership. We argue that President De la Rúa’s ineffective performance was characteristic of an inflexible tendency towards unilateralism, isolationism, and an inability to compromise and persuade. Moreover, we examine how de la Rúas performance, in the context of severe political and economic constraints, discouraged cooperative practices among political actors, led to decision-making paralysis, and ultimately to a crisis of governance.This work seeks to make four contributions. First, it conceptualizes political leadership by providing an analytical framework that integrates individual action, institutional resources and constraints, and policy context, thus filling a gap in the literature. Second, it explains the importance of effective leadership in building up and maintaining multiparty coalitions in presidential systems. Third, it complements existing institutional approaches to improve our understanding of a new type of instability in Latin America: the failure of more than a dozen of presidents to complete their constitutional mandates. Fourth, it analyzes the way political and economic variables interact in times of crisis

Disciplina partidária: o caso da Constituinte Party discipline in the Brazilian Constitutional Congress

Tomando como referência a Assembléia Nacional Constituinte brasileira de 1987-88 os autores examinam uma questão que assinalam ser insuficientemente tratada na bibliografia: a da disciplina partidária em nações latino-americanas. Os autores não encontram provas de uma disciplina partidária sólida, e examinam as conseqüências disso.<br>The question of party discipline in Brazil is examined with reference to the Constitutional Congress of 1987-88. The authors do not find evidence of a strong party discipline and examine the consequences of this. More studies such as this are urgently needed, they argue