JUAN LINZ, PRESIDENTIALISM, AND DEMOCRACY: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL
* Juan Linz es una de las figuras más importantes de la Ciencia Política. Ha trabajado extensamente los temas del autoritarismo, el totalitarismo, la legitimidad democrática y, el tema que ha despertado mi mayor interés, la quiebra de las democracias. A continuación un paper de Scott Mainwaring concerniente al presidencialismo y la democracia en la obra de Juan Linz.
This article critically assesses Linz's arguments about the perils of Presidentialism. Although we agree with several of Linz's criticisms of presidentialism, we disagree that presidentialism is particularly oriented towards winner-takes-all results. We argue that the superior record of parliamentary systems has rested partly on where parliamentary government has been implemented, and we claim that presidentialism has some advantages that partially offset its drawbacks.
These advantages can be maximized by paying carefbl attention to differences among presidential systems. Other things being equal, presidentialism tends to function better where presidencies have weak legislative powers, parties are at least moderately disciplined, and party systems are not highly fragmented. Finally, we argue that switching from presidentialism to parliamentarism could exacerbate problems of governability in countries with undisciplined parties. Even if parliamentary government is more conducive to stable democracy, much rests on what kind of parliamentarism and presidentialism is implemented.
Texto completo en: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/grad-etudesup/ukr/pdf/12.%20Mainwaring%20Shugart%201997%20CP.pdf
These advantages can be maximized by paying carefbl attention to differences among presidential systems. Other things being equal, presidentialism tends to function better where presidencies have weak legislative powers, parties are at least moderately disciplined, and party systems are not highly fragmented. Finally, we argue that switching from presidentialism to parliamentarism could exacerbate problems of governability in countries with undisciplined parties. Even if parliamentary government is more conducive to stable democracy, much rests on what kind of parliamentarism and presidentialism is implemented.
Texto completo en: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/grad-etudesup/ukr/pdf/12.%20Mainwaring%20Shugart%201997%20CP.pdf
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