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This paper develops two criteria for institutional evaluation -- necessity & convenience -- & applies them to the analysis of 76 presidential elections in Latin America between 1979 & 2002. Over the last 20 years, a majority of Latin American countries have adopted presidential runoff electoral systems, but the empirical evidence suggests that both the necessity & convenience of this institution can be questioned. The need for runoff elections is dubious when the most voted candidate in the first round has obtained enough votes to become a legitimate winner, & their convenience is questionable when the candidate elected in the runoff election lacked enough political support to rule. The latter problem has been most visible when the front-runner in the first round was defeated in the runoff (i.e., when the electoral system produced an inversion of the initial outcome) in a context of low party system institutionalization. Tables, Figures, References. [Copyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd.]

This article explores the impact of democratization on the resolution of executive-legislative crises in Latin American presidential regimes. The author studies 27 episodes in which the executive branch closed the legislature or the legislature removed the chief executive from office between 1950 & 2000. It is hypothesized that the democratization of Latin American presidential systems has hindered the ability of presidents to challenge the legislature & encouraged the emergence of congressional supremacy (i.e., the capacity of congress to impeach the president if a serious conflict emerges). Three causal mechanisms account for this outcome: (a) a lower likelihood of military intervention, (b) the elimination of constitutional tools used by authoritarian presidents to dissolve congress, & (c) greater stability in the constitutional environment. After discussing the limitations of conventional maximum likelihood tests, the author assesses this hypothesis using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative model. 4 Tables, 3 Figures, 45 References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2005.]

This article explores the linkages between TV news & the decline of partisanship in Latin America, using survey data for eight countries. After discussing the erosion of traditional Latin American parties during the 1990s, I show that the literature has assumed different types of causal links between TV & party dealignment (treatment vs strategic effects, & cohort vs short-term effects). Based on comparative research on industrial & new democracies, I present two contrasting hypotheses (TV news inhibits partisanship; exposure to TV creates political awareness) & test the impact of short-term treatment effects using a multinomial logit model. The results suggest that TV news encourages party identification in the short run (through treatment effects), although the development of TV may weaken Latin American parties in the long run (through strategic effects). 3 Tables, 52 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper tests two neoinstitutional explanations of voter turnout using data from new democracies. The first part of the paper deals with institutions as "political arenas" -- rules & procedures that structure voters' choices. The second part of the paper explores the role of political organizations as agents of mobilization. The effectiveness of the registration process, compulsory voting, & party competition -- more than any other institutional arrangement -- account for voter turnout during transitions to democracy. To deal with traditional measurement problems, the paper develops an index of party competition for multiparty systems. Multiple regression (OLS & biweight robust regression) is applied to a sample of 17 Latin American countries in the 1980s. The results suggest that the state & political parties have a key role as agents of mobilization in new democracies. 3 Tables, 1 Appendix, 54 References. Adapted from the source document.

Why do democracies survive or break down? In this paper, we return to this classic question with an empirical focus on Latin America from 1945 to 2005. Our argument deviates from the quantitative literature and a good part of the qualitative literature on democratic survival and breakdown. We argue that structural variables such as the level of development and inequalities have not shaped prospects for democratic survival in Latin America. Nor, contrary to findings in some of the literature, has economic performance affected the survival of competitive regimes. Instead, we focus on the regional political environment and on actors' normative preferences about democracy and dictatorship and their policy radicalism or moderation. We argue that 1) a higher level of development did not increase the likelihood of democratic survival in Latin America over this long time; 2) if actors have a normative preference for democracy, it is more likely to survive; and 3) policy moderation facilitates democratic survival. Adapted from the source document.