Introduction

This chapter introduces the topic of Latin American presidential democracies and their often-weak political institutions facing turbulent circumstances. Democratic institutions in Latin America have worked in a context marked by the eruption of popular protest and discontent, the widespread distrust of political institutions constituting a crisis of representation and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Democratic institutions in the region have also had to respond to these external challenges. In this chapter we argue the responses have taken one of three forms: executive attempts or strategies to concentrate greater power in their hands, institutional innovation and change, and/or resorting to symbolic or incomplete institutional actions. With chapters clustering around the topics of fixed terms and other problems of presidentialism, inter-institutional relations and executive accountability, as well as old and new threats to democracy, the volume concludes highlighting the resilience of the region’s institutions to the often-overwhelming turbulent circumstances of the last few years.