Latin American Presidentialism in Comparative and Historical Perspective

Since the time of Aristotle, comparative scholars have developed various alternative typologies to classify constitutional systems. 1 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