The insitutional presidency from a comparative perspective

What is it about?

This paper focuses on the evolution of the institutional presidency – meaning the cluster of agencies that directly support the chief of the executive – in Argentina and Brazil since their redemocratization in the 1980s. It investigates what explains the changes that have come about regarding the size of the institutional presidency and the types of agency that form it. Our empirical references, the presidencies of Argentina and Brazil, typical cases of coalitional as well as single-party presidentialism respectively allow us to show the impact of the type of government on the number and type of presidential agencies.

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Why is it important?

We argue that the growth of the institutional presidency is connected to developments occurring in the larger political system – that is, to the political challenges that president faces throughout her mandate. We show that the type of government (coalition or single-party) has had consequences for the structure of the presidency in these countries. This factor has not played a significant role in presidency-related studies until now, which have hitherto mostly been based on the case of the United States.