This paper presents a preliminary attempt to account for variation in changes in presidential power across post-communist presidential governments. It argues that economic reforms that produce concentrated economic benefits lead the winners from reform to seek institutional change in the powers of the presidency. Where the party system is too weak to protect their gains (and too weak defend the parliament as an organization), the winners from economic reform have strong incentives ally with the president to push for greater power for the executive. In the post-communist world countries with a rapid redistribution of wealth and fragmented party systems have experienced the greatest expansions of presidential power.