ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses presidentialism in its generic form, as one type of executive design distinct from parliamentary government. It provides how presidentialism has been instituted in Latin America to draw an accurate assessment of the criticisms associated with presidential government. The chapter focuses on bureaucracy, thus plays a critical role in democracy as a bridge between elected officials and the general public. The pathologies of bureaucracy are unnerving because they exist even in the ideal type form of bureaucracy identified by Weber. In Latin America, the public sector has experienced considerable change over the past two decades. Generally, democracies place decision making in the hands of elected officials, and leave it to bureaucrats to implement policy. The crumbling of horizontal accountability in the Argentine government made it an ideal example of a delegative democracy. In an attempt to reverse the decline, Alfonsín called on Menem to open negotiations on the expanding presidential powers.
