Latin American Centre Seminars: Paradoxes of democracy in Chile: stability with declining representation

Conveners: Diego Sánchez Ancochea and Leigh Payne

Speaker: Marcela Rios (UNDP-Chile)

Marcela Rios holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, a Masters in Social Science from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Mexico City and a BA in Sociology and Latin American Studies from York University in Toronto, Canada.

She has published extensively in Spanish and English on issues of gender and politics, and democracy in Chile and Latin America. She has taught at several universities in Chile and since 2007 coordinates the Governance program at the United Nations Development Program in Chile. At UNDP she was part of the team that produced the National Human Development Report on Gender Equity in Chile in 2010, coordinated the State of Democracy Assessment in 2014, and the directed the series of comparative studies on Democracy for UNDP.

Since her return to Chile after completing her doctoral studies in 2005, she has actively participated in public policy debates. In 2006, she was appointed to the presidential commission to propose a reform of the electoral system, and during the current administration of President Michelle Bachelet she has been a member of the commissions for Pension Reform and the Presidential Aid Commission regarding conflicts of interest, traffic of influence and corruption. She also integrates the boards of prestigious non-profit organizations in Chile: Comunidad Mujer, Espacio Público and Fundación Salvador Allende.