The Politics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America (Book Talk)

In this lecture, Prof. Maria Victoria (Vicky) Murillo will discuss her co-authored book The Politics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America: Observers often take institutional weakness as an exogenous feature of the landscape, decrying the many ways in which weak institutions get in the way of accomplishing various political agendas. In the book "The Politics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America, Brinks, Levitsky and Murillo turn the tables, showing the ways in which institutional weakness is itself a political strategy. Their analysis draws on the contributions of chapters covering an array of formal institutions, from constitutions and electoral rules, to labor laws and indigenous rights regimes.

María Victoria Murillo is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. She works on political economy, electoral behavior, public policy, and institutional weakness in Latin America. She has recently published Non-Policy Politics: Richer Voter, Poorer Voter and the Diversification of Parties Electoral Strategies (with Ernesto Calvo) and Understanding Institutional Weakness: Power and Design in Latin American Institutions (with Daniel Brinks and Steven Levitsky), both with Cambridge University Press in 2019. She coedited with Brinks and Levitsky, The Politics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America (Cambridge University Press 2020). Her prior books include Political Competition, Partisanship, and Policymaking in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, Comparative Politics Series, 2001).

*FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and available via YOUTUBE LIVESTREAM HERE and via Zoom Webinar HERE. Please note that to participate in the Q&A following the presentation, you must register for the Zoom Webinar.