October 04, 2022
In El Salvador and Elsewhere, Leaders Find Ways to Break Term Limits
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced last month that he would run for a second consecutive term. The announcement follows last year’s ruling by the Salvadoran Supreme Court that abolished the country’s one-term constitutional limit for the presidency.
Bukele’s move mirrors successful efforts by other democratically elected leaders to extend their terms — including Bolivia’s Evo Morales in 2017 and Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe in 2005. Many observers criticized his reelection bid, claiming a second term would entrench Bukele’s control over the country and push El Salvador back on a path of authoritarian rule. El Salvador’s previous authoritarian period ended in 1994 after years of civil war.
Limits to executive time in office help ensure regular, institutionalized rotation of leadership.
Are critics correct in worrying about El Salvador’s democracy? In new research, we show that personalist party leaders like Bukele are more likely to try to expand executive power — including attempts to alter term limit rules — putting democratic governance at risk.
Limits to executive time in office help ensure regular, institutionalized rotation of leadership. Term limit extensions, by contrast, can be a red flag for democracy, suggesting a leader’s intention to stay in office by subverting rules established to curb executive power.
Read the full article from The Washington Post.
More from CNAS
-
Ukraine Negotiations: Confusing Activity with Progress
The past week has seen a flurry of diplomacy from President Trump as he seeks to bring about a negotiated solution to Russia’s war on Ukraine. While activity has been undeniab...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, Samuel Charap & Dr. Angela Stent
-
Russia's Lavrov: Security Talks without Moscow a "Path to Nowhere" | CNN
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and program director at the Center for a New American Security, joins CNN to explain about the difficulties of negotiations are not territ...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
Our Experts Put the Kibosh on Hopes for Ukraine Peace Anytime Soon
There has been a diplomatic flurry around Ukraine in recent days, yet the theme of progress has been hollow words and flip-flopping. Is the White House serious about peace, or...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
What Does U.S. ‘Security Guarantees’ Mean for Ukraine?
Questions are mounting over what exactly "security guarantees" from the U.S. would entail for Ukraine. NBC News Senior White House Correspondent Garrett Haake reports the late...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor