Call for Papers: Political Economy and Democratic Crisis in Latin America: Power, Inequality and a Transforming Global Order
Editorial Team: Oscar Oszlak (University of Buenos Aires), Eduardo Dargent (PUCP). Anthony Medina Rivas Plata (IEPA).
The Andean Journal of Political Studies invites submissions of original articles for its Issue 16, Volume 1 (2026) , dedicated to the critical analysis of political economy and democratic challenges in Latin America. This issue aims to be a pluralistic space for academic dialogue within a regional context marked by profound transformations: the persistence of structural inequalities, increasing political polarization, the expansion of organized crime and illicit economies, the impacts of climate change and the energy transition, and the reconfiguration of Latin America's integration into a changing global order.
The call for papers invites researchers to contribute work that examines these dynamics from an integrated political economy perspective, understood as the analysis of interactions between states, markets, social actors, and transnational power structures. The post-pandemic scenario has intensified historical tensions in the region and highlighted both the vulnerability of development models and the limitations of democratic and regulatory institutions. In this context, the dossier seeks to gather research that addresses how the relationships between sovereignty, redistribution, environmental justice, security, and political representation are being redefined in Latin America.
The submission of comparative studies, subnational analyses, long-term historical research, and innovative approaches that allow for an understanding of the heterogeneity of trajectories and experiences in the region is especially encouraged. Likewise, the call is open to contributions from political science, economics, sociology, history, law, environmental studies, and other related disciplines, with the aim of promoting an interdisciplinary dialogue that enriches the academic debate.
The papers may address, among other topics, the resilience and erosion of democracy, tax regimes and redistributive policies, governance in the face of organized crime, the political economy of the energy transition and the Amazon, the strategies of elites and social movements, and the insertion of Latin America into the global political economy.
The lines of work that we will include for the purposes of the dossier will be the following:
- State, democracy and polarization
- Processes of erosion and institutional resilience in Latin America.
- New ideological and cultural cleavages: beyond the classic left-right divide.
- Populism, personalistic leadership, and coalition fragmentation.
- Political parties, accountability and subnational dynamics.
- Taxation, redistribution, and social policies
- Progressive and regressive fiscal policies in contexts of high inequality.
- Perceptions of tax fairness and attitudes towards paying taxes.
- Social transfers, conditional programs and regional learning.
- The role of business elites in defining or blocking redistributive reforms.
- Organized crime, violence and governance
- Criminal governance and its impact on democratic quality.
- Dynamics of electoral violence and capture of the State by illicit networks.
- Public security policies and their interactions with social programs.
- Illegal markets (drugs, mining, logging, smuggling) as axes of contemporary political economy.
- Green economy, energy transition and the Amazon
- Green central banking and financial policies in the face of climate change.
- Multi-level environmental governance, rights to prior consultation and indigenous participation.
- Tensions between economic development and conservation in the Amazon.
- International waste trade, extractivism and global environmental justice.
- Elites, social movements and identities
- Political influence strategies of agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and other strategic sectors.
- Indigenous, Afro-descendant, feminist and community social movements in the definition of public agendas.
- Public policies and their retroactive effects: how reforms generate new forms of organization.
- Political and civic identities in processes of inclusion and exclusion.
- International integration and global political economy
- Latin America's relations with China, the United States, the European Union and multilateral organizations.
- New dependencies in strategic sectors: energy, biotechnology, infrastructure, knowledge.
- Digital globalization and bioeconomy: opportunities and challenges.
- Latin America in the reconfiguration of the post-pandemic world order and in times of deglobalization.
- Methodological innovations in political economy
- Experimental designs and pre-analysis plans in the region.
- Subnational comparisons and multilevel analysis.
- Long-term historical studies as a tool for understanding the present.
- Use of big data and new technologies in social science research.
Schedule:
- Publication of the Call for Papers : January 13, 2026
- Deadline for submission of full articles: April 30, 2026
- Peer review process: May – June 2026
- Notification of acceptance and review comments: June 30, 2026
- Delivery of final corrected versions: July 31, 2026
- Publication of Issue No. 16, Vol. 1: August 15, 2026
