Guillermo O'Donnell

Guillermo O'Donnell ( born February 24, 1936 in Buenos Aires, † November 29, 2011 ibid ) is an Argentine political scientist and Helen Kellogg Professor of Government and International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Work

Among his most important theoretical contributions in political science include his work on the " bureaucratic- authoritarian state " as well as to processes of transformation of authoritarian states to democracies. With his works he coined terms like "horizontal accountability ", the "micro about the theories of democracy and the characteristics of the process of democratic transition, through the development of concepts such as " horizontal accountability "," micro - democracy "and the" delegative democracy. "

O'Donnell divided into representative democracies as democracies by free market countries of the western world and the newly installed democracies in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. The latter are mostly counting after O'Donnell to the delegative democracies. This is when one of the three powers usurped another and thus the principle of horizontal separation of powers is violated. Democratic institutions are largely concentrated here, especially in a strong presidentialism, which is understood as an organic emanation of the State. The system according to O'Donnell could still be regarded as democratic, albeit as less liberal than the representative democracies of the West. The delegative democracies are all in a process of transition to representative democracies, the degree of institutionalization decides on the progress.

Representative democracy must by O'Donnell but not necessarily be the destination point, eg because due to other socio-economic and historical structures of traditional western model of democracy, let not necessarily always to impose. O'Donnell is a political associate of the flow of Peronism. His brother Pacho O'Donnell is a well known Argentine politician and writer.

Guillermo O'Donnell died on 29 November 2011 at the age of 75 years.

Writings

• Transitions from authoritarian rule. Tentative conclusions about uncertain democracies, 4th revised edition. Baltimore 1993 ISBN 0-8018-2682-9.
• Bureaucratic authoritarianism. Argentina, 1966-1973, in comparative perspective. Berkeley, 1988, ISBN 0-520-04260-3.
• Delegative democracy. In: Journal of Democracy. ( 7:4 ) 1994, pp. 112-126.