A comparative analysis of impeachment in Spanish America in 1993 – 2015

Sudden changes in power and unfinished terms have been a part of Latin American politics since the countries’ birth. For more than one and a half century they had been made by way of coup d’état or revolution. However, the “third wave” of democratization brought new, democratic and legal ways to remove the most important people from power. The article aims to compare specific cases of impeachment, which took the place of the coup, although the political, economic and social background differs in each case. The analysis showed that some patterns are noticeable, like removing a president after a corruption scandal or because he had not fulfilled his campaign promises or because of mass demonstrations of discontent with neoliberal reforms. Impeachment is a very welcome alternative to any use of force, but at the same time its high frequency proves that there are some faults in the political systems.

Replacement of the President in Office under the XXVth Amendment to the US Constitution

The situation, unprecedented in the history of the United States, of launching the impeachment procedure for the second time during one term of office against a sitting president was preceded by an attempt to use another mechanism for removing a head of state from office, namely the mechanism provided for in the XXV th Amendment to the Constitution. The purpose of this article is to analyze Section 4 of the XXV th Amendment, in light of the January 2021 events that took place on Capitol Hill. The methods used during the work include: historical, dogmatic-legal and linguistic method. The conclusions support the presumed thesis that, compared to impeachment proceedings, the XXV th Amendment mechanism is a faster process that does not require indictments or Congressional proceedings. However, it requires a particularly politically difficult decision by the vice president acting in consultation with the heads of departments of the American government, fraught with potential consequences should the ousted President return to power, in view of the administration’s total dependence on the decisions of the head of state. It is these circumstances that must be considered the reasons why the provisions under consideration have not been applied in practice.

This article systematises procedures for dismissing a Head of State in the countries of South America. We look at the genesis of introducing impeachment to the constitutions of countries in this part of the world, paying close attention to the specific historical background of the Western Hemisphere, then focusing on the categorization and systematisation of the procedure itself. We present three models of the presidential impeachment in South America: Judicial, Bicameral and Unicameral. Using a contextual approach, doctrinal research, comparative method and theory-building strategy, we discuss the general features of these models and the specificities of use in each country of the continent.