YPA Cafecito: Elections in Argentina and Chile with Professors Murillo and Navia

In October and November, eyes will turn to the south of South America when Argentina and Chile both have elections. On October 26, Argentines vote in midterms where President Javier Milei will attempt to increase his majority in Congress, as he executes his agenda to lessen government support over the economy. U.S. President Donald Trump has conditioned a potential U.S. aid package to Argentina on the midterm results. Then, on November 16, Chileans vote in the first round of an election to succeed President Gabriel Boric. Polling shows a second round, scheduled for December, is likely.

Two prominent academics—Professors Victoria Murillo of Columbia University and Patricio Navia of New York University—will reflect on the results of the Argentine midterms and look ahead to the Chilean race in a cafecito with Young Professionals of the Americas. The two will engage in an off-the-record Q&A with members, moderated by YPA's Chase Harrison, before a networking drinks reception.

Members receive complementary access to this event. Attendance for non-members is $10.

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Speakers:

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Maria Victoria Murillo holds a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs.

Murillo's research on distributive politics in Latin America has covered labor politics and labor regulations, public utility reform, education reform, agricultural policies, and economic policy more generally. Her more recent work focuses on electoral behavior, contentious dynamics, and the analysis of institutional weakness. Her empirical work is based on a variety of methods ranging from quantitative analysis of datasets built for all Latin American countries to qualitative field work in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela and survey and experiments in Argentina and Chile.

Murillo received her B.A. from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Murillo has taught at Yale University, was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University (Harvard Academy for Area Studies & David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies), and at the Russell Sage Foundation, as well as a Fulbright fellow.

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Patricio Navia is clinical professor of liberal studies and adjunct assistant professor in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Navia is also a professor of Political Science at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from New York University, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Political Sciences and Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

He has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, New School University, Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Chile and NYU Buenos Aires, and a visiting fellow at the University of Miami. He has published scholarly articles and book chapters on democratization, electoral rules and democratic institutions in Latin America. As founding director of Observatorio Electoral at Universidad Diego Portales, he has co-edited Democracia Municipal (2012), El sismo electoral de 2009. Cambio y continuidad en las preferencias políticas de los chilenos (2010) and El genoma electoral chileno. Dibujando el mapa genético de las preferencias políticas en Chile (2009). His books Diccionario de la política chilena (with Alfredo Joignant and Francisco Javier Díaz), El díscolo. Conversaciones con Marco Enríquez-Ominami (2009), Que gane el más mejor: Mérito y Competencia en el Chile de hoy (with Eduardo Engel, 2006) and Las grandes alamedas: El Chile post Pinochet (2004) have been best sellers in Chile. He is a columnist in El Líbero in Chile, Buenos Aires Herald, and Infolatam.com. He has previously penned columns for La Tercera, Capital and Poder magazines in Chile, Perfil in Argentina.

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