Speaker: Susan Stokes, Chair, Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies; John S. Saden Professor of Political Science; Director, Yale Program on Democracy, Yale University

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Speaker: Michael Shifter, President, Inter-American Dialogue

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University

By any standard, the 2017 presidential election in Honduras was a major setback for democracy. President Juan Orlando Hernández’s decision to run for reelection was fraught with constitutional problems. The electoral authorities mysteriously stopped counting votes when the opposition candidate was ahead. When counting resumed, Hernández was somehow in the lead. Calls from the Secretary...

Speaker: Martin Liby Troein, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, MIT

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University 

Morales ascended the presidency in 2006 on promises of far-going change. In office since then, he has largely delivered: Writing a new constitution, nationalizing the hydrocarbons sector, and providing greater political and economic inclusion for Bolivia’s indigenous majority. But in contrast to counterparts in Venezuela and Ecuador, with which the Morales administration...

Speaker:...

Speaker: Kenneth Roberts, Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government at Cornell University

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University

Many scholars have drawn distinctions between left-leaning, so-called “inclusionary” populism in Latin America and right-wing “exclusionary” populism in Europe. The recent rise of left populisms in the aftermath of Southern Europe’s financial crisis, however, has strong parallels to the Latin American experience, and it casts doubt on any...

Speaker: Mariano Sánchez-Talanquer, Academy Scholar, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University

Speaker: Lorenza B. Fontana, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program. Research Associate, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Politics and International Studies, Open University

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of...

Speaker: Andrew Schrank, Olive C. Watson Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs, Brown University

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Speaker: Mateo Jarquín, PhD Candidate, Department of History, Harvard University

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University

Today most historic Sandinista leaders oppose current president Daniel Ortega. This talk shows how a much-...

Speaker: Belén Fernández Milmanda, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, Harvard University

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University

Belen will be presenting an advance of her dissertation which studies how rural elites organize to influence policy-making in Argentina, Brazil and Chile and explains why they have chosen different strategies of political participation.

Belén Fernández Milmanda is a fifth-year Ph. D. candidate at the Government Department. Before coming...

Speaker: Veronica Herrera, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University 

The distance between the state and grassroots claims is long. To access the state territorial groups must overcome limited material resources education and time as well as public officials who dismiss them as illegitimate policymaking partners. This paper based on extensive field research examines the construction of advocacy networks for environmental...

Speaker: Melissa Dell, Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University

This study examines the long-run impacts of irrigation on agricultural productivity and economic development in Mexico using data...

Speaker: Felipe Barrera-Osorio, Assistant Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Moderator: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University

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Speaker: Thamy Pogrebinschi,  Democracy Visiting Fellow Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation,  Harvard Kennedy School 

While Latin America consistently scores badly in most assessments of democracy it has been celebrated by many as a laboratory of citizen...

Speaker: Taylor Boas, Custer Visting Scholar, DRCLAS; Associate Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies, Boston...