00:00Colombia should think seriously if it abandona the presidentialism and
00:04transist to a parliamentary or semi-parlamentary of government.
00:08The reason is that I am convinced, like many other analysts, that the presidentialism is a
00:14form of a bad way for democracy and I believe that the last elections confirm this idea,
00:21because the presidentialism plays very bad with the multipartidism.
00:26I explain that tension. In a presidential regime, if there is multipartidism, like in Colombia,
00:33and the multipartidism is deseable because it is favorable to the pluralism,
00:36always, or almost always, the president will not have mayorías in the Congress.
00:42For example, if there is a president of Iván Cepeda, there would be 27 senators of the pact,
00:50very close to the 53 that are mayor. If there is Paloma Valencia,
00:55there would be even fewer figures, and if there are other candidates like Fajardo,
01:03if he came from the hueco in which he himself met for his terquedad, or if there is not a
01:09salvation, but a national catastrophe, which is that he would have to win a Bailardo,
01:12they would have even less support of their party in the Congress.
01:18So, what happens in a presidential regime? In a presidential regime,
01:21those periods are fixed. For example, in Colombia, those two for four years.
01:28And in a presidential regime,
01:29any president can disolver the parliament to call elections, if he thinks that there is no way
01:37to implement his policies, or the parliament can make him fall.
01:45But it is not possible to be able to do it.
01:47It is not possible to be able to do it.
01:47But it is not possible to be able to do it because he doesn't share his policies.
01:51So, how do they have to support themselves?
01:53What can happen?
01:54Alguns would even think that the idea of the president
01:57that the president has no longer mayorías is good, invoking to Habermas,
02:00who just died, would say that this is a problem of deliberation,
02:04and of getting consensus. If the president proposes,
02:06there will be discussions about the best political policies for Colombia,
02:11the best leyes.
02:12But that is not what usually happens,
02:14because the congressmen also work for incentives.
02:18And there is no in the presidential regime
02:20any incentive for a congressman who is not part of the party of the government,
02:26interested in that that the government will go well,
02:28as a general rule.
02:30So, they don't have to be able to do it.
02:33The first thing is that the president decides that if they do not convince them,
02:39they convince them with a mermelada.
02:41But that is not deseable.
02:42That can generate corruption and clintelism that do not strengthen the democracy.
02:47The second thing is that one has president impotent,
02:50who can't advance because they feel that they can't pass their policies in Congress.
02:55Or the third thing is that one has president prepotent,
03:00which they say is that I am elected popularly,
03:04I represent the people, I am the people,
03:06they have said Trump and Petro,
03:09and how is it that these congressmen limitate my policies?
03:13And then they do things authoritarian.
03:15Interpretation super amplia of their presidential powers,
03:19like Trump has done with its orders.
03:22Recurso to states of exception,
03:24like Petro has done with a recurrence.
03:26And that idea between the mermelada,
03:29presidentes impotentes o presidentes prepotentes,
03:32no is good for the democracy.
03:34If we were in a parliamentary regime,
03:36the thing would be different.
03:38Because if there is a multipartidism,
03:40then there is a coalition of parties
03:43to be able to establish or choose a Prime Minister.
03:47Why? Because in the parliamentary regime,
03:49the Prime Minister has to do with the support of the Parliament.
03:54If it does not do with the support of the Prime Minister,
03:56then the Prime Minister has to do.
03:56If that Prime Minister has to do with the support of the people,
03:59then he can say to the Jefe of State that he calls to elections
04:03and it is the people who arbitra the conflict
04:06between the Prime Minister and the Parliament.
04:09So there are the mechanisms to overcome those blocks,
04:12and when they are overcome those blocks,
04:15then one has a governmental coalition more serious,
04:18based more on agreements programmatic,
04:21and that gives governments more efficient,
04:24and those who are not in the coalition
04:26have to do with a serious opposition
04:29to see if they can arm another coalition
04:31for the next election
04:33or to make it fall to the Prime Minister.
04:36So I think that the parliamentary regime
04:38generates better democracies,
04:41because at the same time,
04:43governments more efficient and governments
04:44that give better accounts.
04:46That's why I believe that this discussion
04:49that we saw in other countries of Latin America
04:52is a discussion that we should take back.
04:56I believe that some of the fundamental problems
05:00of the democratic democracy,
05:02like Juan Linz or Santiago Niño,
05:05or like Roberto Gargarela,
05:08have to do with that the presidentialism
05:10is a bad form of government for the democracy,
05:14because it generates
05:15or risks of authoritarianism,
05:17or risks of institutionalism,
05:19or risks of governments inefficaces.
05:22Hello, I'm Rodrigo Primny,
05:25columnist of El Espectador,
05:26and I invite you to read my column
05:28Presidencialism, Parlamentarism and Multipartidism
05:31on El Espectador.com.
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