Fixing Democracy: Why Constitutional Change Often Fails to Enhance Democracy in Latin America - Softcover

Corrales, Javier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0190868902 ISBN 13: 9780190868901

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

The study of institutions, a core concept in comparative politics, has produced many rich and influential theories on the economic and political effects of institutions, yet it has been less successful at theorizing their origins. In Fixing Democracy, Javier Corrales develops a theory of institutional origins that concentrates on constitutions and levels of power within them. He reviews numerous Latin American constituent assemblies and constitutional amendments to explore why some democracies expand rather than restrict presidential powers and why this heightened presidentialism discourages democracy. His signal theoretical contribution is his elaboration on power asymmetries. Corrales determines that conditions of reduced power asymmetry make constituent assemblies more likely to curtail presidential powers, while weaker opposition and heightened power asymmetry is an indicator that presidential powers will expand. The bargain-based theory that he uses focuses on power distribution and provides a more accurate variable in predicting actual constitutional outcomes than other approaches based on functionalism or ideology. While the empirical focus is Latin America, Fixing Democracy contributes a broadly applicable theory to the scholarship both institutions and democracy.

About this title

About the Author

Javier Corrales is Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science at Amherst College and obtained his PhD in Government from Harvard University in 1996. He specializes in comparative politics and international relations of Latin America. He has written extensively on economic reforms, democratization, presidential powers, term limits, education policy and international relations. He has been a Fulbright scholar in Bogotá, Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela. He is on the editorial board of Latin American Politics and Society and Americas Quarterly, and the European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Review

"Corrales's theory of power asymmetry resonates with the Latin American experience: constitutions are pacts, and their viability and content depend on the initial balance of forces between the president and the opposition. This book is central to emerging debates about the endogenous nature of institutional design." -Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, University of Notre Dame

"Javier Corrales's Fixing Democracy is an important theoretical and empirical contribution to the study of constitutionalism, presidentialism, democratization and Latin American politics. Corrales argues that power-diffusing constitutions are an asset for democracies and that they are most likely to emerge when there is a relative symmetry of power between incumbents and the opposition. Constitutions that give presidents great powers can pave the way to democratic erosions; they are most likely when presidents have much more power than oppositions." -Scott Mainwaring, Harvard University

"Fixing Democracy is an outstanding book on how the constitutional authority of Latin American presidents expands or is constrained, with major implications for the stability of democratic regimes and the troubling tendency for illiberal backsliding. The book speaks to a large literature on the effects of presidential constitutions in Latin America, but goes well beyond it by showing how constitutions themselves are shaped. Corrales's book is a model of theoretical sophistication and mixed-method empirical research. It will have an important impact on how we think about the challenges facing democracy in Latin America and, potentially, other regions as well." - Robert Kaufman, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University

"This book is an important contribution to the field of neo-institutionalism in comparative politics. It fills a gap in knowledge of the reasons why presidential powers expand or contract in the context of the broader strength of democracy." -- L. M. Barnett, Our Lady of the Lake University, CHOICE

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0190868902
• ISBN 13: 9780190868901
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288