Presidencialismo em crise ou parlamentarismo por outros meios?: impeachments presidenciais no Brasil e na América Latina

Abstract

The goal of this article is to set the impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in the context of the broader literature on presidential breakdowns in Latin America. Going against the Linzian thesis of systemic instability, we argue that presidential systems in Latin America have found institutional mechanisms to deal with crisis between the Executive and legislative branches. It does not mean, however, that the solutions for the deadlocks are uncontroversial. Issues of legitimacy and legality, as well as a highly polarized political environment, characterize the majority of cases of presidential breakdowns mobilized by the Legislative. Taking this broader context and the recent Brazilian case, we propose some institutional mechanisms in presidential systems that could facilitate solving political deadlocks between branches of government.