Latin America - [02/12/2009]

Workshop: “Party and governmental coalitions in presidential regimes, and their impact on political stability: the case of the Southern Cone” (1983-2005)

“Latin America is experiencing a deconstruction of the bi-party system and a rise in governmental and party coalitions”

On 10 February, Adrián Albala, a researcher at the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l’Amérique Latine (IHEAL) of Paris, presented his working paper, titled “Party and governmental coalitions in presidential regimes, and their impact on political stability: the case of the Southern Cone (1983-2005)”.

Through a comparative analysis of three case studies - Uruguay, Chile and Argentina - Albala offered an update of the concept of governmental coalitions with a central hub in the debate between parliamentarianism and presidentialism in Latin American governments, stressing that political coalitions can function as a guarantee of governability and political and democratic stability. Meanwhile, the commentator Jordi Matas Dalmases, Professor of Political Science at the University of Barcelona, emphasised the importance of creating a stronger link between governmental coalitions and democratic values, as well as the need to create models of analysis that enable us to understand how coalitions function in Latin America, and which are at the same time comparable with coalitions in European parliamentary systems.