Institutional designs exert an influence on the degree of centralization or dispersion of decision-making power. This article takes a comparative approach to the institutional designs in three South American democracies - Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay - with the objective of constructing an index for concentration of power in the three countries. The indicators take three aspects into account: mechanisms for direct political participation, the legislative process with the various forms of horizontal accountability and veto among players, and the level of intervention by the Executive Branch using proactive and reactive powers. A systematic data survey shows that the designs in the three countries display major differences.
Latin American legislatures; presidentialisms in Latin America; comparative politics in Latin America
