Bloodless Coups

Abstract

Aníbal Pérez-Liñán's Presidential Impeachment and the New Political Instability in Latin America examines the most important trend in Latin American presidentialism over the past 25 years. As any careful observer will have noted, the region's militaries have been unable, or unwilling, to seize control of the state and govern since the Cold War's demise. The military coups that long punctuated the governing cycles of many countries in Latin America have virtually disappeared. In their wake, however, we do not necessarily find a succession of stable governments, ceding power, one to the next, according to schedules and processes set down by constitutions. Instead, crises of confidence in presidents and in their governments, among citizens or other institutional actors, have frequently been resolved by the president's premature removal from office by the legislature, or at least with its assent. These government crises have not toppled the institution of civilian government per se, yet their characteristic improvization may erode the mutually reinforcing expectations about the rule of law on which stable democracy depends.