Do Presidential Systems Imperil Democratization

How and to what extent have the Presidents of Russia (Vladimir Putin) and Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) influenced the democratic consolidation of their countries?

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Political Systems - General and Comparisons, grade: 1,3 , University of Bath (Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences ), course: Transitions to Democracy , language: English, abstract: In political science it is commonly accepted that institutional choices affect the outcome of a political system. This essay will analyze in what ways presidential systems influence democratic consolidation. Analyzing and comparing two states, Venezuela and Russia it will be shown how, and to what extent presidential systems and the current presidents of the analyzed countries imperil democratization. The essay begins with definitions of democracy and presidentialism. After a chapter on the historical context of both countries the effects of presidentialism are analyzed in the main part giving a theoretical overview first, and then the two countries are analyzed separately and are finally compared. The second chapter addresses the institutions, the third political and civil rights and the fourth civil society. In the fifth other problems independent from presidentialism are described. It will be shown that presidential systems can imperil the democratic process in transition countries because an executive dominance over the legislative is created. Presidents can use that dominance to determine the political outcome, influence political institutions and exacerbate the work of opposition movements. As both examples show, presidential systems do imperil democratization although the extend may differ from country to country and other factors together with the historical context also provide fruitful explanation which have to be taken into consideration.