Professional Affiliation

Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Kentucky

Expert Bio

Carlos de la Torre is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky and a former Wilson Center Fellow.  He is co-editor, with Cynthia Arnson, of Latin American Populism in the Twenty-First Century.

Education

B.A. (1983) Sociology, University of Florida, Gainesville; M.A. (1987) Sociology, New School for Social Research; Ph.D. (1993) Sociology, New School for Social Research

 

Expertise

Latin American populism; sociology of racism in Latin America

Wilson Center Project

"Andean Radical Populism: The Foe or the Essence of Democracy"

Project Summary

The inconclusive promises of democratization in Latin America have encouraged scholars in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador to search for alternative models of democracy. A first goal of the project is to examine to what extent their theoretical models relate to representative democracy or to populist understandings of democracy. A second goal is to evaluate empirically how proposals of constructing alternative and more participatory institutions have been implemented in each nation. A third goal is to explore the continuities and ruptures of these new experiments with classical and neopopulist experiences.

Major Publications

• The Ecuador Reader. Coedited with Stece Striffles. Duke University Press. Fall 2008.




• Galo Plaza y su Época, coedited with Mireya Salgado. Quito FLACSO, 2008.




• Afroquiteños: Ciudadanía y Racismo. Quito: CAAP, 2002.