ABSTRACT
The fact that Latin American countries tended to adopt a kind of presidential system clearly showed that the system that the United States invented at the end of the eighteenth century filled a need in the new republics further South. A number of other republics had previously existed, the most famous having been the old Roman republic, which lasted for centuries: but neither that example nor many other instances set up from time to time, in particular in Italy, were presidential. This chapter examines whether 'presidential chief executive dominance' continues to be wholly valid in the presidential governments of Latin America. Major changes in the characteristics of national executives were naturally to have an impact on the way in which the 'governments', in the precise sense of the term, were both formally constituted and operated in practice.
