Delegative democracy

The concept arose from Argentinian political scientist Guillermo O'Donnell, who notes that representative democracy as it exists is usually linked solely to highly developed capitalist countries.

Delegative democracies are able to prosper in their respective areas due to the fact that there is a specific social and economic crisis that allows those in charge to go about the exercise of their authority.

When the people see the success of these institutions that specifically support social and economic problems, delegative democracy prevails.

Unlike democratic republics like the United States who has Congress and the judiciary, accountability is put all on the president instead of other institutions.

Although delegative democracy focuses power on one leader, it shares democratic traditions in terms of allowing the majority to win.

In this sense, voters and the population have their main say in government while they are voting, but once the president is elected, the system reduces their power in terms of freedom of expression.

During his period of reign from 2002 to 2010, Colombia president Alvaro Uribe[9] focused all of his power in the executive branch to shift his country towards a delegative democracy.

As seen in the examples above, there are times when a delegative democracy can lead to the weakening of institutions, proving to be an endless cycle of political turmoil.

Colombia represents an interesting case of overall changes after a delegative democracy is institutionalized through leaders such as Juan Manuel.

These attacks on key institutions within Colombia represented a large issue in Uribe's governing style in the undermining of the institutionalization of democracy.

Evident in all of these issues that Uribismo caused, delegative democracy leaders have a lack of qualifications but due to the viewpoints of the people, it justifies their authoritarian behavior.

Christopher Larkins argues that due to the impact of the 1980's crisis, delegative democracy (in the sense of O'Donnell) originated in Argentina.

The economic crisis was used to justify a centralization of executive authority which began with Raúl Alfonsín's administration and continued with Carlos Saul Menem ascending to the presidency.

When looking at what transpired in Argentina specifically, the death of Alberto Nisman under the rule of President Fernández led to the foundation of delegative democracy.

Prior to the rise of the PRI, the country was plagued with political conflict and turmoil due to the assassination of President-elect Álvaro Obregón in 1928.