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This book focuses on the selection process of cabinet ministers in a variety of democratic political systems. It discusses the variety of recruitment patterns in some of parliament-centered systems, federal system, centralized system, one-party-dominant system and majoritarian system.

Portfolio allocation in presidential systems is a central tool that presidents use to deal with changes in the political and economic environment. Yet, we still have much to learn about the process through which ministers are selected and the reasons why they are replaced in presidential systems.This book offers the most comprehensive, cross-national analysis of portfolio allocation in the Americas to date. In doing so, it contributes to the development of theories about portfolio allocation in presidential systems. Looking specifically at how presidents use portfolio allocation as part of their wider political strategy, it examines eight country case studies, within a carefully developed analytical framework and cross-national comparative analysis from a common dataset. The book includes cases studies of portfolio allocation in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Peru and Uruguay, and covers the period between the transition to democracy in each country up until 2014. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites, executive politics, Latin American politics and more broadly comparative politics.

This book examines the many routes forty or so women have taken to become president or prime minister of their countries and the problems they have encountered once in office. Their ability to deal with the difficulties of governmental and party leadership in a male-dominated culture are discussed along with an evaluation of their performance in managing domestic problems and handling the issues of war and peace. The essential question asked throughout is what difference being female made in their governing style.