Book presentation by Juan Pablo Luna: “Democracia Muerta”

November, 2024.- Democracia Muerta is an essay by political scientist Juan Pablo Luna about Latin America and Chile that argues that the problems currently facing democracies in the region do not originate in institutional politics, but rather in much deeper structural factors that transcend leaders and the rules of the political game.

The chronic weakening of democracy and its permanent crisis is related, according to the author of the book, to the expansion of illegal markets and organized crime, to an exhausted development model, to the collapse of political parties, and to the growing incapacity of the State to address the social transformations that push us to rethink democracy and the future of our coexistence.

Juan Pablo Luna, PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a Full Professor at the School of Government of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Associate Researcher at the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data (IMFD) and at the Millennium Institute VioDemos.

His most recent research addresses the relationship between inequality, State capacity, organized crime, and democratic citizenship in Latin America. He has published “En vez del optimismo. Crisis de Representación en el Chile actual” (Catalonia, 2017) and “La chusma inconsciente” (Catalonia, 2021).

The presentation of Democracia Muerta will feature its author and comments by Marjorie Murray, professor at the UC School of Anthropology and researcher at the Millennium Institute VioDemos, and Sergio Toro, professor at the School of Government of Universidad Mayor and researcher at the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data.

This event will take place on Thursday, December 12 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 202 of the Centro de Extensión UC, Av. Lib. Bernardo O’Higgins 390, Santiago.

Those wishing to attend, please register at: https://forms.gle/dh3DLCgtXe6n17GK7