Presidential Personalities and Constitutional Power Grabs in Latin America, 1945-2021

The active erosion of democratic institutions and norms by national political leaders has become a growing global concern. Attempts to expand presidential power have been commonplace across regimes, countries, and historical periods, and the list of perpetrators includes some of the most influential leaders of the previous and current centuries, who have dramatically changed the course of their countries. Despite this pattern, it remains unclear what types of leaders are most likely to undermine democracy. Presidential Personalities and Constitutional Power Grabs in Latin America, 1945-2021 integrates differential psychology research with comparative politics to show that individual differences among heads of government have a measurable impact on executive governance. Ignacio Arana Araya leverages a unique and comprehensive database to prove his theory, including interviews with 24 former presidents from ten countries, evaluations of leaders by hundreds of experts, and biographical and psychometric data on presidents. His analysis reveals that dominant and politically inexperienced presidents are more likely to attempt to relax their term limits, while risk-taking and assertive leaders are more inclined to expand their formal powers. By treating the individual differences of political leaders as independent variables, this book offers a paradigmatic shift in the studies of democracy, political elites, institutional change, and the nature of presidency itself.

Ignacio Arana Araya is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST) at Carnegie Mellon University. He studies how the personality traits and other individual differences of national leaders impact executive governance. His research also examines the effect of political institutions, especially in Latin America. He has published in leading journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, and Democratization. He is part of the Democratic Erosion consortium, Chile's country expert for Freedom House since 2016, a columnist for latinoamerica21.com, and runs www.ignacioarana.org and https://latinos-pittsburgh.com.