Juan Pablo Luna
Inaugural Chairholder of the Diamond-Brown Chair in Democratic Studies in the Department of Political Science at McGill University
I obtained my PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2006.
While mainly focused on comparative Latin American politics, my research analyzes how socio-structural conditions, such as social inequality and state capacity, shape democratic institutions and development trajectories. Regarding teaching, I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses (master’s and PhD levels) on Latin American politics, democracy, organized crime, research design, and methodologies. I have had the pleasure of supervising the doctoral research of more than a dozen students.
Chairholder of the Diamond-Brown Chair in Democratic Studies in the Department of Political Science at McGill University
In recent years, I have researched how the dynamics of organized crime contribute to reshaping politics, states, and markets in Latin America. My books include: Latin American Party Systems (with Kitschelt, Hawkins, Rosas, and Zechmeister; Cambridge, 2010); Segmented Representation: Political Party Strategies in Unequal Democracies (Oxford, 2014); The Resilience of the Latin American Right (with Rovira-Kaltwasser; Johns Hopkins, 2014); En vez del optimismo. Crisis de representación política en el Chile actual (Catalonia, 2017); Political Parties and Diminished Subtypes (with Rosenblatt, Piñeiro, and Vommaro; Cambridge, 2021); Latin American Politics and Society: A Comparative Historical Analysis (with Gerardo Munck; Cambridge University Press, 2022); Criminal Politics and Botched Development in Contemporary Latin America (with Andreas Feldmann; Cambridge University Press, 2024); ¿Democracia Muerta? Chile, América Latina y un Modelo Estallado (Ariel, 2024).
I have been a visiting professor at various universities in the United States, France and Spain. I have also received numerous grants and awards including the Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholars Award for the project Organized Crime, State Crises, and the Consolidation of Violent Democracies (2023–2025).
Languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
Current Research Focus:
- Democracy
- Political Effects of Inequality
- Organized Crime
- State Capacity
- Political Representation
- Comparative Politics
- Institutional/Political Underpinnings of Development
Recent Publications:
Luna, J. P. (2024). Disjointed Polarization in Chile’s Enduring Crisis of Representation. Latin American Politics and Society, 66(2), 72-101.
Muñoz-Rodríguez, M., Ferrero, R., Luna, J. P., & Lima, M. (2024). Squeezed from the top:“Social Outburst”(2019) and elite overproduction. A study of the dynamics of Chilean political instability from the approach of Structural Demographic Theory. Plos one, 19(6), e0299063.
Luna, J. P., Alcatruz, D., Muñoz, C. P., Rosenblatt, F., Maureira, S. T., & Valenzuela, S. (2024). Local government, social media and management of COVID-19: the case of Chilean mayoral communication. Political Communication, 41(4), 672-691.
Luna, J. P., & Medel, R. M. (2023). Uneven states, unequal societies, and Democracy’s unfulfilled promises: Citizenship rights in Chile and contemporary Latin America. Latin American Politics and Society, 65(2), 170-196.
Alberti, C., Luna, J. P., Toro-Maureira, S., & Gayo, E. (2023). The long memory of the land: Pre-colonial origins of Mapuche mobilization in Chile. Political Geography, 103, 102890.
Luna, J. P., Toro, S., & Valenzuela, S. (2022). Amplifying counter-public spheres on social media: News sharing of alternative versus traditional media after the 2019 Chilean uprising. Social Media+ Society, 8(1), 20563051221077308.
Website https://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/juan-pablo-luna