Argentina’s President recently used her presidential decree powers in two high profile cases.
First, and to the dismay of many living in Argentina’s west and south, President Kirchner used a decree to temporarily move all clocks forward one hour starting on December 30th. This adjustment, which leaves much of the country under daylight well into the night, is hoped to alleviate Argentina’s power shortages and Buenos Aires’ recent blackouts.
Then, in a move that will bring the first high speed train to Latin America, President Kirchner used a presidential decree to grant a 1.5 billion dollar contract for a high speed train link between Buenos Aires and Cordoba to a consortium headed by the French company Alstom.
These two decrees demonstrate the proactive power afforded to Argentina’s President by the country’s institutions, and more generally, highlight the powers of presidential decrees in presidential systems. The result, in these two cases, has been decisive policy making on two issues calling for quick decisions, although it appears both decisions may have some feeling left out.
For more on these two stories, please see:
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566820
http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=57266947191808
1 response so far ↓
monicapachon // January 29, 2008 at 12:37 am
Decrees certainly allow presidents to act “quickly” and solve problems which require immediate action. The downside of that – however, is that some presidents can use decrees for almost any policy. What kind of decree powers are there and which ones seem to affect the “balance of power?”
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