Who can stop the president?

Presidential term limits restrict the time a president can serve in office. If observed, term limits assure turnover in the executive power and can be an important component that safeguards democracy from authoritarian-minded leaders. Since presidential term limits is a check on power, however, presidents often seek to abolish, amend or circumvent them in order to prolong their stay in power, and with dire consequences for democracy.

In this breakfast meeting GIGA-researchers

Charlotte Heyl
and

Mariana Llanos
together with

Leiv Marsteintredet
(UiB) will discuss the success and failures of presidential term limits in Africa and Latin America, and the ability of this important constitutional safeguard to hinder presidents’ desire for power.

This conversation is the first event in our new Bergen Global event series called “In the wake of democracy: A series on new forms of dictatorship”.

In this series we will look at how we failed to anticipate the resilience and re-emergence of dictatorial prone leaders, their manipulation of information rather than on violence, and how these leaders survive in a (still) largely democratic world.

Welcome!