Why Presidents Fail

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Christopher A. Martinez sheds important new light on presidential crises in Latin America by stressing the crucial role of party institutionalization. Based on thorough, in-depth research, he convincingly substantiates this argument with a range of country case studies."
-Kurt G. Weyland, The University of Texas at Austin "Why are presidential crises recurrent in some Latin American countries but so rare in others? Martinez shows that the president's legislative shield is tempered by the institutionalization of the legislative parties. Why Presidents Fail artfully combines statistical evidence and seven country studies to sustain this novel and important argument."
-Anibal Perez-Linan, University of Notre Dame "This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of how presidential democracies function. Political parties under presidentialism are understudied and by focusing on their role in supporting or opposing presidents, Martinez raises crucial questions."
-Jose Antonio Cheibub, University of Pittsburgh "Presidential failure has been a frequent scholarly topic in a region where presidents often face serious crises, and some have been forced out before finishing their terms. Why Presidents Fail offers an innovative perspective centered on how party institutionalization influences presidents' survival in office. This is obligatory reading at a time when parties appear increasingly uprooted, and presidential outsiders seem to be the order of the day."
-Mariana Llanos, German Institute for Global and Area Studies "In Why Presidents Fail the Chilean scholar Christopher Martinez advances a sophisticated, if somewhat complex, theoretical construct to explain why a large number of Latin American presidents have failed to finish their constitutional terms in office."-Philip Chrimes, International Affairs "Those who wonder why some presidents fall in the midst of political crises and others survive and are able to complete their terms will find, in Martinez's book, a compelling argument in favor of having democracies with a strong party system and with individual parties that have strong roots in society. Martinez joins an accomplished group of scholars that have studied the party system and illuminated readers about the importance of having stable, strong and reliable political parties."-Patricio Navia, Americas Quarterly