Why Presidents Leave Early: New or Continued Political Instability in Peru and Ecuador?

This event is hybrid. To register for the online session, click here.

Speakers: Andres Mejia Acosta, Associate Dean of Policy and Practice and Professor of Political Economy of Development, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame; Gretchen Helmke, University of Rochester; Mariana Llanos, Lead Research Fellow / Co-Leader of the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies (ad interim).
Moderated by: Alisha Holland, Associate Professor of Government, Harvard University

Panelists will reflect on how well their past work, such as Linan’s Presidential Impeachment and the New Political Instability in Latin America (2007) and Helmke’s Institutions on the Edge (2017), explain the recent inter-branch crises in Peru and Ecuador. Do the same theoretical frameworks still apply or did we see new dynamics develop during these recent crises that went against their predictions?

Prior to joining the Keough School, Mejía Acosta was a reader (professor) of political economy and founding member of the Department of International Development at King’s College London (2013-2022). Before that, he was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, where he led global research programs on state-building and state capacity (2006-2010), democracy and local government in the Western Balkans (2010-2013), and nutrition governance in low- and middle-income countries (2010-2013). More recently he co-edited Negotiating Universalism in India and Latin America (Routledge 2021), a volume exploring the link between fiscal decentralization, subnational politics, and social outcomes.

Alisha Holland is an Associate Professor (untenured) in the Government Department at Harvard University. Before joining the Harvard faculty, she was an Assistant Professor in the Politics Department at Princeton University and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She studies the comparative political economy of development with a focus on urban politics, social policy, and Latin America. Her book, Forbearance as Redistribution: The Politics of Informal Welfare in Latin America (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics), looks at the politics of enforcement against property law violations by the poor, such as squatting, street vending, and electricity theft. Her current book project focuses on the politics of large infrastructure projects in Latin America. Her other research interests include law, migration, crime control, and subnational governance. Her articles have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, Latin American Research Review, Perspectives on Politics, and World Politics. Holland hold an AB from Princeton University (2007) and a PhD from Harvard University (2014).

Presented in collaboration with Weatherhead Institute for International Affairs