Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. PhD in Political Science, Princeton University. She obtained her BA in Political Science at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Her research focuses on institutional analysis, legislative policy, bargianing between the branches of government, transitional justice, memory and reconciliation, with a focus on Latin American politics. In the area of ​​methodology and methods, she is interested in research design and quantitative and experimental methods.

Her book Checking Presidential Power: Executive Decrees and the Legislative Process in New Democracies (Cambridge University Press, 2019), explains why presidents vary in their use of executive decrees to enact legislation. The book addresses the cases of Argentina and Brazil in depth, and carries out comparative analysis of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Peru. The author argues that the explanation lies in differences in politicians’ institutional commitment across countries, and she elaborates on what this institutional commitment is and how it is formed.

In general terms, her research addresses the legislative process from various angles and through the analysis of various institutional mechanisms, always with a comparative motivation, although using specific case studies. Thus, in addition to analyzing the use of the executive decree, she has researched the use of the presidential veto in the legislative process in different Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the presidential use of legislative urgency in Chile, Ecuador, and other countries in the region.

In response to the Chilean uprisings and constitutional reform attempts, she has devoted attention to the analysis of the Chilean constitutional system, emphasizing that it must be analyzed recognizing the effects of a system in equilibrium, and the importance of carrying out reforms based on diagnoses that are validated empirically and aligned towards solving the underlying institutional problems.

Other topics she has addressed include the impact of variations in the levels of institutionalization of Congress (in collaboration with Mariano Tommasi and Carlos Scartascini), the effects of constitutional reforms in Third Wave democracies (with Sergio Huertas and Patricia Sotomayor), the prerogative of fast track, which in Latin America usually takes the form of legislative urgency, the analysis of the impact of visits to memorial museums in promoting reconciliation after political conflicts (with Laia Balcells and Elsa Voytas), among others.

Her work has been published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Revista de Ciencia Política, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Global Constitutionalism and the Journal of Politics. She is also co-author of the book Congress, Presidency and Justice (Editorial Temas, Argentina 1999, with Guillermo Molinelli and Gisela Sin).

In 2009 she was Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame.

She was Head of the PhD Program in Political Science (2014-2016) and Deputy Director of the Institute and Head of Undergraduate Studies (2019-2022).  She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of History, Geography and Political Science UC.

Recent Publications

Books

• 2019. Checking Presidential Power: Executive Decrees and the Legislative Process in New Democracies, Cambridge University Press
  
  
• 1999. Congreso, Presidencia y Justicia en Argentina, con Guillermo Molinelli y Gisela Sin. Editorial Temas – FGyS. B.A., Argentina

Articles

• 2024. "The line-item veto as a coordination mechanism", with G. Sin and E. Reynolds, Legislative Studies Quarterly. Accepted June 14. Forthcoming.

• 2024. “Chile’s Failed Constitutional Intent: Polarization, Fragmentation, Haste, and Delegitimization,” with Patricia Sotomayor Valarezo, Global Constitutionalism, 13:1: 200-209, https://doi.org/10.1017/S204538172300028X

• 2022. "Do transitional justice museums persuade visitors? Evidence from a field experiment", with Laia Balcells and Elsa Voytas. Journal of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1086/714765. Preprint.

• 2022. ¿Voto versus Protesta? La movilización como mecanismo de participación ciudadana. Polis. DOI: 10.32735/s0718-6568/2022-n61-1708

• 2021. “Presidents on the Fast Track: Fighting Floor Amendments with Restrictive Rules ”, with Eric Magar y Gisela Sin. Journal of Politics. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3514866

• 2020. “Variations on the Veto Prerogative: Evidence from Chile”, Latin American Research Review. Volume 55, no. 2 –ISI / WoS Q3.

• 2016. “Congressional Institutionalization: A Cross-National Comparison”, with Carlos Scartascini y Mariano Tommasi. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 41: 7–34.

• 2014. “Veto Bargaining and the Legislative Process in Multiparty Presidential Systems”, with Gisela Sin. Comparative Political Studies, July, Volume 47, Issue 7.

• 2013. “Item Vetoes and Attempts to override them in Multiparty Systems”, with Gisela Sin. Journal of Politics in Latin America, Volume 5, Issue1: 37-66.

• 2012. “Argentina: Dispersión de la Oposición y el Auge de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner”, with Gabriela Catterberg. Revista de Ciencia Política, Volume 32, No.1, 3-30.

• 1997. “Partidos Provinciales y Gobierno Nacional, 1983-1995”, with con Gisela Sin. En Boletín SAAP, N°5.

Chapters of Books

• 2021. Régimen político: El poder presidencial. Desequilibrio de poderes y déficit democrático”, en ¿Cómo funciona nuestra democracia? Una guía para ciudadanas y ciudadanos. Libro editado por Lucia Dammert y Pamela Figueroa. Ediciones USACH.

• 2020. "Legislatures and Executive Vetoes”, en Handbook of Parliamentary Studies: Interdisciplinary approaches to Legislatures. Book edited by Cyril Benoît & Olivier Rozenberg. Edward Elgar Publishing.

• 2020. "The Presidency", en Oxford Encyclopedia of Latin American Politics. Edited by Prevost G. and H. Vanden. Oxford University Press.

• 2017. “El locus del Congreso en el sistema político chileno”, con Rodrigo Espinoza, en Juan Pablo Luna y Rodrigo Mardones (eds.). La Columna Vertebral Fracturada: Revisitando Intermediarios Políticos en Chile. Santiago: RIL Editores

Others

• 2020. Book Review: Centro presidencial: presidencias y centros de gobierno en América Latina, Estados Unidos y Europa. Edited by Jorge Lanzaro. Madrid: Tecnos, 2018. Figures, tables, bibliography, index, 440 pp. Latin American Politics and Society, 62(2), p.154-157

• 2018. Book Review: Legislative Institutions and Lawmaking in Latin America. Edited by Eduardo Alemán and George Tsebelis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016. 296p. Perspectives on Politics, 16(3), 884-886 –ISI Q1

• 2018. “Gridlock in the Presence of Executive Decree Authority,” The Legislative Scholar Vol 3, Issue 1.

• 2012. On the Institutionalization of Congress(es) in Latin America and Beyond. Inter-American Development Bank, Working Paper 363.

• 2005. “Delegação e Controle Parlamentar na Argentina”, in M. Llanos and A.Mustapic (eds.) Controle Parlamentar na Alemanha, na Argentina e no Brasil, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Brazil, 2005.

Courses Taught

PhD

• Comparative Political Institutions

• Institutions of the Legislative Process

• Research Design

• Thesis Direction

Magister

• The Legislative Process in Comparative Perspective

• Graduation Project

Undergraduate

• Political Processes in Latin America

• Institutions and Strategic Behavior

• Seminar Latin America in the 20th Century

• Undergraduate Seminar