Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies (Hardcover)

Considering the fact that the majority of the world's thirty democratic presidential systems are located in countries that have vacillated between periods of democracy and dictatorship for the past fifty years, it is clear that the survival of each presidential system is of crucial importance to the success of this recent wave of democracy. In Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies, political scientist Mark P. Jones addresses the conditions necessary for the survival of democratic presidential systems, arguing that the electoral laws employed by such systems are intricately and inextricably linked to the longevity of democracy. Throughout the book Jones's focus is on the most realistic and feasible mechanism for facilitating the proper functioning and survival of democratic presidential systems: electoral law reform. Political scientists and Latin Americanists will appreciate Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies as a comprehensive examination of the impact of electoral laws on presidential systems, and as a challenge to the conventional wisdom that the presidential form of government is insuperably flawed.