Monday, 11 June 2012

Latin American heads of state and power

It is a pity we never hear the discussion about parliamentarian versus presidential democracies when "experts" talk about re-elections in Latin America. Parliamentarian democracies are completely different from presidential democracies and these differences are essential if people want to understand why there have been term limits for presidential systems, specially for very strong presidential forms. The US allowed indefinite re-election until Roosevelt, but even then a US president had more limited powers than a president in other countries.

It is incredible so many sycophants of "left nationalist" presidents say that the possibility of indefinite re-elections in Germany, Spain or Britain are a reason to allow that in Venezuela, with a completely different - strongly presidential - system.

Here you have the chart of Latin American heads of state and, rounded down, their time in power.


Today Venezuela's military caudillo will register as a candidate for re-election once more. He has been in power since early 1999, more than any  other head of state in Latin America.



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