Charismatics presidents elected in Latin America, as well as in other ancient authoritarian regimes, have been using constitutional change mechanisms (amendments or new Constitutions) with the aim of destroying both constitutionalism and democracy. They create new autocratic regimes in order to remain in power and/or weaken the control system. The strategy makes the Constitution appear democratic at a distance and the danger to the rules of democratic play and liberal democracy goes unnoticed by the international community (Schepelle). The proposed presentation works with the hypothesis that the Brazilian presidential design, combined with the conflictive experience of coalition presidentialism, as well as the history of authoritarianism in the country, benefits this kind of maneuver, being the cause of a democratic and institutional crisis, in an hypothesis of a weak president as well as a strong one
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