''Hyper-presidentialism'', Executive Decrees and Emerging Democracies: Argentina and Russia.

Presidential decree authority is a powerful instrument for chief executives in the politics of emerging democracies. Focusing on Argentina and Russia, two important emergent democracies that have endowed their presidents with significant decree-issuing authority, we examine the dynamics of chief executives' reliance on these decision-making instruments. We find that the level of presidential decree activity is predicted not only by certain institutional and socioeconomic factors, but also by domestic contextual circumstances and executives' leadership style. The level of hostility of the domestic context (political and socioeconomic) for chief executives is especially critical to their decree-issuing activity. We conclude that executive decrees represent a reliable unilateral means by which presidents can attempt to influence events and consolidate their power. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]