Parliaments in Latin America: Transatlantic Political Culture and Parliamentary Institutions

The parliamentary history of Latin America suffers under a twofold ambiguity. Onone hand, the tradition of a strong presidential regime has deeply compromised the aptitude of a shared exercise of power in the State. After the different movements of independence, which have installed republican systems of government all over the old Spanish colonies, only Brazil remained organized as the old European metropolitansieges, as a monarchy.