Contested, Violated but Persistent: Presidential Term Limits in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa

Presidential term limits are intended to prevent the personalization of power and promote alternation in office, but they have been frequently contested by incumbents since the 1990s. This book brings together the scholarship on Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa to provide new insights into the institutionalization, power of precedence, incumbent-centred strategies, and approaches to protect presidential term limits. It will be of great use to students and researchers interested in Latin American and African studies, comparative politics, and political leadership.

Format: Hardback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 26 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Presidential term limits have emerged as a significant institutional feature of the third wave of democratization, serving as a vital tool to safeguard democracy and prevent the personalization of power. These limits are intended to promote alternation in office and prevent the accumulation of excessive power by individual leaders. However, since the 1990s, term limits have faced frequent contestation from incumbent politicians, often perceived as a sign of autocratization. This contestation process has involved weakening other constitutional constraints, such as courts and legislatures, which undermines the democratic balance.

Term-limit contestations have garnered the attention of scholars from various perspectives, including those with a global, regional, or country-specific focus. Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have emerged as focal points of these trends, despite their distinct histories of presidentialism and varying types of term-limit rules. This book aims to contribute to the scholarship on these regions by bringing together research on Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, offering context-bound intraregional insights as well as long-term perspectives on term-limit change.

The chapters in this volume present novel findings on various aspects of presidential term limits. They explore the institutionalization of term limits, the power of precedence, incumbent-centered strategies, and approaches to protect term limits from erosion. By combining empirical analysis with theoretical frameworks, the chapters provide valuable insights into the dynamics of term-limit contests and their implications for democratic governance.

This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in Latin American and African studies, comparative politics, and political leadership. It offers a comprehensive examination of the role of presidential term limits in these regions and provides a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the dynamics of democratic transitions and the preservation of democratic institutions.

Weight: 553g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032398679