Abstract

MARSTEINTREDET, Leiv. The Vice Presidency and the Problems of Presidential Succession in Latin America: Old and New Challenges to Presidentialism. Polít. gob [online]. 2019, vol.26, n.1, pp.117-137.  Epub June 26, 2020. ISSN 1665-2037.

After Vice-President Temer supported the impeachment of President Rousseff in Brazil, the vice presidency has (again) received criticism in Latin America. The newly raised criticism echoes a long-standing critique of the vice presidency as a source of conflict and instability. This article, however, argues that the criticism suffers from a misconception and that it is confounded with three problems of presidential succession inherent to presidential systems: the problems of loyalty, legitimacy and presidential substitution. Through a comparative and historical analysis based on a new database on rules of succession in Latin America, the article discusses how these problems have been met and attempted resolved through reforming the rules of succession, and how the recent presidential interruptions in the region present a new problem of presidential substitution that challenges the extent to which the rules of presidential substitution are fit to resolve presidential crises.

Keywords : vice presidency; presidentialism; rules of succession; instability; constitutional reforms.

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