By Taylor Crownover
Upon arriving in Santiago, Chile, it dawned on me that I was further south than I had ever been in my life! Despite this, the time difference with Texas is just one hour ahead. Here I am, on the opposite side of the world, yet aligned longitudinally with my home. This realization has persisted throughout my first month in Chile, where cultural differences are strikingly evident, yet abounding moments of familiarity are also present as I continue immersing myself in the city.
Continue reading Bridging Borders: Cultural and Political Thoughts from a Texan in Santiago →
UT’s Embedded Scholars program is sending its 2024 cohort to Latin America later this month to support democracy and electoral assistance programs this summer. With at least 73 countries—eight in Latin America alone—holding elections this year, amid rising polarization and democratic challenges, the stakes are high for national and international actors working to promote free and fair elections and robust democracy.
Continue reading UT Sends 2024 Embedded Scholars to Latin America →
The 2024 fellows conducted research this spring on a range of pressing challenges and opportunities for democracies today. Students shared their research this week, giving presentations on the role of public participation, civic and constitutional culture, and democratic resilience in preserving and advancing democracy.
Continue reading Fellows Share Research on Participation, Culture, and Democratic Resilience →
In their internship class this spring, the 2024 fellows conducted research on key challenges facing democracies today. Their research assessed current findings on these challenges globally and the sociopolitical, legal, and constitutional dynamics shaping these issues in Latin America. Today, students presented their research on disinformation in elections and democratic disaffection and backsliding.
Continue reading Fellows Share Research on Disinformation and Backsliding →
By Guillermo Pérez
My experience during the internship was wonderful for multiple reasons. First and foremost, working with a prestigious organization like International IDEA is a privilege. The research projects, the opportunities for influence, and the constant dialogue with political authorities in the country are extremely important for strengthening democracy. Earlier in the summer, we had the opportunity to participate in a seminar organized by IDEA on the Chilean constitutional process. In that seminar, international experts such as Adam Chilton, Lisa Hilbink, and David Landau shared their reflections on the Chilean constitutional proposal. There were also dialogues between the constitutional experts who proposed the draft constitution and the members of the Constitutional Council that reviewed and approved the final version.
Continue reading Chilean Constitution Drafting →
By Tien Vo
I recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in government and math. This summer I got to work with International IDEA through an internship organized by the UT Government Department and two amazing professors, Ashley Moran and Zachary Elkins. It is a newly developed internship program to study democratic institutional development in Latin America, and it has been an honor being one of the students chosen to participate in this program.
Continue reading AI, Social Media, and Democracy →
By Francisco Alvarado-Quiroz
What we know collectively as “Latin America” contains, depending on whom you ask and how you count, some 21-plus countries. The landscapes contain high-altitude cities, untouched jungles, and beautiful beaches. While you could get away communicating in Spanish throughout most of the region, there are an uncountable number of languages and dialects.
Continue reading The State of Democracy in Latin America →
By Alejandra Jimenez
In my last week interning for International IDEA, I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Fabricio Franco, a professor and director of the Chile office of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. During this meeting, the other interns and I got to learn more about Chile’s current sociopolitical dynamics from a perspective I had not heard before. This made a fulfilling closing to my internship with IDEA that further motivated me to remain informed about Chile’s journey towards a potential new constitution.
Continue reading Stunning Mountains, Long Bus Rides, and Lots of Milanesa →
By Matt Martin
After three weeks under the Panamanian sun, I headed to Santiago for a taste of the Chilean winter. There I spent the last three weeks of the Democratic Institutional Development internship working closely alongside the team at the International IDEA office in Chile. The second half of my experience was a perfect complement to the first, providing not only greater exposure to IDEA’s operations but also a chance to understand more deeply Chile’s constitutional moment, a topic of great personal interest.
Continue reading Supporting the Chilean Constituent Process →
By Guillermo Perez
Throughout my life, I have had the privilege of living in many places, including Spain, Mexico, and the United States. I have remembered and missed my country of birth, Chile, in each of these places. However, this was the first time in recent years when I had the chance to mix the world of Chile with that of the country where I live. This internship allowed me to combine my North American world with my Chilean world, and it was a truly extraordinary experience.
Continue reading A Unique Adventure →
By Tien Vo
When I arrived in Santiago, Chile early this summer, I was a little nervous and very excited about what was awaiting me in a new city, a new country. Through my four years at UT, I explored a wide range of topics in politics, ranging from the productive political conversations taking place on social media platforms to affective polarization. And this research has always been U.S.-focused. But I had never thought about participating in an internship about constitutional reforms in a different country. Yet there I was applying for an internship on democratic assistance programs in Latin America, working with International IDEA.
Continue reading New Threats to Democracy →
By Alejandra Jimenez
Surrealism refers to a form of visual art that produces incongruous imagery by means of irrational juxtapositions. Some argue that surrealism revolutionizes the human experience, as magic and beauty can be found in the unexpected and uncanny. In a similar way, my time in Chile has been just that—pleasantly unexpected.
Continue reading Chile Surrealista →
By Matt Martin
The time I’ve spent in Panama has been nothing short of a privilege. To work alongside International IDEA and have a peek into the world of democratic and electoral assistance was invaluable, both on a professional and personal level. Most of my time was spent at the Tribunal Electoral (“Electoral Tribunal,” or TE), where International IDEA-Panama is located. The TE houses not only the country’s civil registry, national ID directorate, and specialized electoral body but also the Instituto de Estudios Democráticos (“Institute of Democratic Studies,” or INED). I worked alongside the director of INED, Salvador Sánchez, and several other researchers on his talented team. Their kindheartedness made me feel more than welcome as an intern.
Continue reading Constitutional Performance in Panama →
Four graduate and undergraduate UT students are conducting their Summer 2023 work in Chile at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
Alejandra Jimenez, Guillermo Pérez, and Tien Vo started their work at the IDEA Chile Office on June 1, and they’re joined this week by Matt Martin, fresh in from IDEA’s Panama Office. The fellows are supporting a range of legal and constitutional reform projects in Chile, with Chile’s current constitutional reform process underway.
Continue reading Fellows Team Grows in Chile! →
The 2023 Embedded Scholars have been preparing for their summer work abroad through a new government course created for the program — Research in Democratic and Constitutional Development. The course delves into issues in democratization, constitutional design, and democracy assistance, engaging students in research in these areas. This semester, the students worked with the Comparative Constitutions Project to design a new deliberative consultation framework to research public views on constitutional issues.
Continue reading 2023 Fellows Develop New Public Consultation →
This story originally appeared on the UT College of Liberal Arts website. A version of this story also appeared later on the UT Texas Global website.
Students from The University of Texas at Austin will spend the summer in Central and South America working on democracy and election assistance through a new partnership between UT’s Department of Government and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
Continue reading UT, IDEA Partner to Engage Students in Democracy Aid →
The Embedded Scholars Program is an innovative research fellowship focused jointly on democracy assistance and research to launch students’ work in the field while advancing democratic development in Latin America. The program is based in the UT Government Department and developed in partnership with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP). The program is led by Zachary Elkins and Ashley Moran.
Continue reading Embedded Scholars Program Names 2023 Fellows →
A research exchange program at the University of Texas at Austin supporting student work abroad in democratic institutional development