The literature on presidential politics has typically dealt with four topics: the organization of the executive branch; the resources of the presidency; presidential coalitions; and decision-making in particular administrations. Students of the United States presidency have produced significant work on all topics, but the research and knowledge on them for Latin America lags behind. While significant pieces have been produced on coalition-building and management, as well as on economic and political decision-making, no equivalent research exists on the organization of the executive branch and the resources of the presidency. This gap, somewhat surprising considering the importance that the literature concedes to the presidency, rests on two shortcomings: the lack of a theoretical and methodological agenda; and the lack of information with which to feed the development of empirical research. This paper intends to contribute to the solution of the first shortcoming. To this end, it develops a research agenda on the organization of the executive branch, the resources of the presidency and their effects on policymaking by tacking stock of the benchmark literature on the US presidency and its Latin American counterparts, identifying a set of relevant pending questions on Latin American presidencies, and proposing research strategies for their investigation.
