The Once and Future Democracy: Argentina at the Bar of Constitutionalism

Abstract

Endemic and persistent crisis is a new challenge to the constitutional democracies clustered in the northern tier of the North Atlantic World. Crisis and constitutionalism have long been conjoined phenomena, however, in the republics clustered in the southern tier of the North Atlantic World. Latin America is the region par excellence where institutions have been shaped by constitutional showdowns and shocks.

One obvious functional response to crisis is to strengthen executive power. The difficult circumstances that gave birth to democracy in Latin America in the 1980s, for example, facilitated the constitutionalization of executive decree powers. The longest period of sustained democracy in Latin America is also the period of greatest executive authority.

The fear amongst constitutionalists, of course, is that excessive executive authority undermines democracy. This paper critically examines that claim by historicizing the troubled course of constitutionalism in Argentina. The paper argues that organic constitutional change and adaptation may do a better job of ensuring the long-term health of democracy than do rigid notions of separation of powers. This paper will be published in The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions (Denis Galligan and Mila Versteeg eds., Cambridge University Press 2013).

Keywords: Constitutionalism, Separation of Powers, Presidentialism, Democratization, Latin American Studies