Guillermo Rosas

Professor of Political Science

PhD, Duke University

research interests:

Comparative Political Economy
Latin American Politics

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contact info:

Email: grosas@wustl.edu
Office: Seigle 288

office hours:

Monday 2:00-3:30pm
or by appointment

mailing address:

Washington University
MSC 1063-228-207
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Guillermo Rosas' research interests include comparative political economy and legislative politics in Latin America. He teaches courses on Latin American politics, political economy of development, and research methods.

Guillermo Rosas joined the Department of Political Science in 2004. His research interests include comparative political economy (politics and finance, determinants of budget deficits, banking crises) and legislative politics in Latin America. He teaches courses on Latin American politics, political economy of development, and research methods.

in the news:

12.3.21

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Guillermo Rosas

7.9.20

Professor Guillermo Rosas Receives McDonnell Grant

The Chain of Representation: Preferences, Institutions, and Policy in Presidential Systems

By Brian Crisp (12983), Guillermo Rosas (13037), Santiago Olivella

How do formal institutions affect the extent to which democracies adopt policies that reflect the preferences of their citizens? Based on a chain of representation model in which electoral rules and policy-making powers link citizens, politicians, and policies, this book reveals the conditions under which citizen preferences and implemented policies diverge. Comparative quantitative analyses encompassing eighteen Latin American countries show that presidential democracies vary greatly in the degree to which they demonstrate responsiveness to their electorates. Often, individual presidents with strong legislative powers have prompted policy changes that are unrepresentative of voter preferences. Other times, their interactions with legislatures result in more representative policies. Grounded in clear theory and thorough empirics, this study shows how rules can introduce dissonance between voters and politicians, but also how they can potentially reduce it. This is an excellent resource for scholars and graduate students interested in comparative politics, institutional design, economic policy, and Latin American studies.

Curbing Bailouts: Bank Crises and Democratic Accountability in Comparative Perspective

By Guillermo Rosas

In this comparative analysis of late-twentieth-century banking crises, Guillermo Rosas identifies political regime type as the determining factor. During a crisis, powerful financial players demand protection of their assets. Rosas maintains that in authoritarian regimes, government officials have little to shield them from such demands and little incentive for rebuffing them, while in democratic regimes, elected officials must weigh these demands against the interests of the voters---that is, the taxpayers. As a result, compared with authoritarian regimes, democratic regimes show a lower propensity toward dramatic, costly bailouts.

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Latin American Party Systems

By Herbert Kitschelt, Kirk A Hawkins, Juan Pablo Luna, Guillermo Rosas, and Elizabeth J Zechmeister

Political parties provide a crucial link between voters and politicians. This link takes a variety of forms in democratic regimes, from the organization of political machines built around clientelistic networks to the establishment of sophisticated programmatic parties. Latin American Party Systems provides a novel theoretical argument to account for differences in the degree to which political party systems in the region were programmatically structured at the end of the twentieth century. Based on a diverse array of indicators and surveys of party legislators and public opinion, the book argues that learning and adaptation through fundamental policy innovations are the main mechanisms by which politicians build programmatic parties. Marshalling extensive evidence, the book's analysis shows the limits of alternative explanations and substantiates a sanguine view of programmatic competition, nevertheless recognizing that this form of party system organization is far from ubiquitous and enduring in Latin America.

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