PRESIDENTIALISM AND THE RULE OF LAW: THE ANDEAN REGION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Democratic instability in the Andean region is often caused by an interaction between presidentialism and the weakness of the rule of law in the context of deep divisions in society. This argument is consistent with cross-national empirical evidence that countries with presidential constitutions are less stable than parliamentary democracies but only when the rule of law is weak. To demonstrate the causal mechanisms linking constitutions and the rule of law to democratic instability, constitutional crises are analyzed in five Andean countries and contrasted with two comparable cases of parliamentarism from South Asia. The comparison shows that presidentialism, unlike parliamentarism, may exacerbate instability where the rule of law is weak, as well as contribute to the erosion of the rule of law, thereby both directly and indirectly causing democratic instability.