About

Raúl L. Madrid is a Professor in the Department of Government and an affiliate of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in Latin American politics, comparative ethnic politics, and democratization theory. His recent research has focused on the rise of indigenous parties in Latin America and the policies and performance of leftist governments in the region. Currently, he is working on a new project exploring the origins of democracy in Latin America. Madrid serves as the Chair of the AP Comparative Government and Politics Development Committee for the College Board. He has also held roles such as Program Co-Chair for the 2014 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association and Associate Editor of the Latin American Research Review from 2004 to 2006. Before graduate school, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica and worked as a foreign affairs analyst for a nonprofit research organization in Washington, DC. He earned his B.A. from Yale University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Madrid is the author of The Rise of Ethnic Politics in Latin America and Retiring the State: The Politics of Pension Privatization in Latin America and Beyond, and co-editor of Leftist Governments in Latin America: Successes and Shortcomings. His scholarly articles have been published in numerous journals including Comparative Politics, Electoral Studies, Journal of Latin American Studies, Latin American Politics and Society, Latin American Research Review, Political Science Quarterly, and World Politics.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Humanities
• Sociology
• Law
• Economic history
• History
• Philosophy
• Public relations
• Psychology
• Political economy
• Economics
• Development economics
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• The Birth of Democracy in South America

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-06-04 · 2 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  South America contains some of the oldest democracies in the world, yet we still know relatively little about how and why democracy arose in the region. Raúl L. Madrid argues that three main developments – the professionalization of the military, the growth of parties, and splits within the ruling party – led to democratization in the early twentieth century. Military professionalization increased the incentives for the opposition to abandon the armed struggle and focus on the electoral path to power. The growth of parties boosted the capacity of the opposition to enact and enforce democratic reforms that would level the electoral playing field. And ruling party splits created the opportunity for the opposition and ruling party dissidents to ally and push through reforms. This persuasive and original book offers important implications for the study of democracy. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Por la Razón o por la Fuerza. La pacificación interna de América del Sur (1830-1929)

  AMÉRICA LATINA HOY · 2025-05-12

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A lo largo del siglo XIX, América del Sur enfrentó una serie de conflictos internos que provocaron inestabilidad en las economías y en los sistemas políticos de la región. Sin embargo, a principios del siglo XX, los niveles de violencia política en toda la región disminuyeron drásticamente. Los estudios existentes han prestado sorprendentemente poca atención a esta transformación histórica, en parte debido a la ausencia de datos exhaustivos sobre las revueltas. Basándonos en el trabajo de historiadores, creamos una base de datos sobre revueltas sudamericanas entre 1830 y 1929, y desarrollamos una tipología original para ordenar estas rebeliones. Descubrimos que las revueltas desde fuera del aparato estatal disminuyeron drásticamente durante este período, mientras que las rebeliones desde dentro del Estado, como los golpes de Estado, no lo hicieron. Asimismo, demostramos que el aumento del tamaño y la profesionalización de las Fuerzas Armadas, que se originó a partir del auge de las exportaciones y la amenaza de conflicto internacional, impulsaron la disminución de las rebeliones más severas.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Por la Razón o por la Fuerza. La pacificación interna de América del Sur (1830-1929)//By Reason or by Force: The domestic pacification of South America (1830-1929)

  UCL Discovery (University College London) · 2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  A lo largo del siglo XIX, América del Sur enfrentó una serie de conflictos internos que provocaron inestabilidad en las economías y en los sistemas políticos de la región. Sin embargo, a principios del siglo XX, los niveles de violencia política en toda la región disminuyeron drásticamente. Los estudios existentes han prestado sorprendentemente poca atención a esta transformación histórica, en parte debido a la ausencia de datos exhaustivos sobre las revueltas. Basándonos en el trabajo de historiadores, creamos una base de datos sobre revueltas sudamericanas entre 1830 y 1929, y desarrollamos una tipología original para ordenar estas rebeliones. Descubrimos que las revueltas desde fuera del aparato estatal disminuyeron drásticamente durante este período, mientras que las rebeliones desde dentro del Estado, como los golpes de Estado, no lo hicieron. Asimismo, demostramos que el aumento del tamaño y la profesionalización de las Fuerzas Armadas, que se originó a partir del auge de las exportaciones y la amenaza de conflicto internacional, impulsaron la disminución de las rebeliones más severas.

  Publisher

• Reining in Rebellion: The Decline of Political Violence in South America, 1830–1929

  International Security · 2024 · 3 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Political economy

  Abstract During the nineteenth century, South America was plagued by internal rebellions that destabilized the region's economies and political systems. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, levels of political violence throughout the region declined dramatically. Existing scholarship has paid surprisingly little attention to this historic transformation, in part because comprehensive data on revolts have been lacking. Historical narratives and an analysis of a comprehensive new dataset on all revolts in South America from 1830 to 1929 show that the decline in revolts stemmed in large part from the expansion and professionalization of the region's militaries, which were driven by the export boom and the threat of interstate conflict. Nevertheless, not all types of rebellions declined precipitously during this period, as an original typology of revolts shows. Although the strengthening of the region's armed forces discouraged revolts by non-state actors, it did not significantly reduce rebellions from within the state apparatus, such as military coups.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Conflict and nation: The colonial origins of ethnic exclusion and discrimination in Latin America

  2024-09-03

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Why do some ethnic groups gain rights through mobilization against the state, while others become targeted for doing so? We argue that whether mobilization leads to inclusion or further exclusion of peripheral ethnic groups depends on the long-term trajectory of conflict. When peripheral groups have a history of conflict with the state, they often develop an oppositional identity that core groups can frame as a threat, thereby justifying intensified targeting and exclusion. We test this argument in the context of nineteenth-century South America, where core Creole elites established new nations on a fluid sociopolitical landscape, shaping ethnic boundaries that were still malleable while facing multiple and frequent conflicts with these groups. Our findings suggest that patterns of colonial-era conflict between white and non-white groups determined whether later inter-ethnic conflicts during state and nation-building led to ethnic exclusion and targeting.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Relevance of Religion for Political Office: Voter Bias Toward Candidates from Different Religious Backgrounds

  Political Behavior · 2022 · 10 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  Abstract Over the last several decades, Gallup data shows an increased willingness among members of the public to support presidential candidates from a wide range of religious backgrounds, though a nontrivial proportion of the public is still unwilling to vote for an Atheist, Mormon, or Muslim. What underlies this opposition? We argue that voters evaluate candidates from religious out-groups more negatively on a wide range of dimensions considered desirable for political office, and that this bias should be more pronounced among the highly religious. We show support for these arguments using a survey experiment fielded with YouGov. Atheists and Muslim candidates were perceived more negatively on a large set of traits considered desirable for political office compared to candidates from religious in-groups, and Mormon candidates fall somewhere in between. The Atheist and Muslim candidates were also perceived as less competent on a diverse set of issues.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Replication Data for: Normalizing Diversity in Merit Review Forms

  Harvard Dataverse · 2022-05-31

  datasetOpen access

  Replication material for Normalizing Diversity in Merit Review Forms. This paper is part of the PS Symposium on Diversity and Inclusion in Political Science.

  PublisherDOI

• Normalizing Diversity in Merit Review Forms

  PS Political Science & Politics · 2022-10-05 · 1 citations

  article

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• Protegiendo la mente: un análisis al concepto de lo mental en la ley de neuroderechos

  Revista de Humanidades de Valparaíso · 2022 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Humanities
  • Humanities
  • Philosophy

  Luego de examinar algunos de los aspectos más fundamentales respecto del concepto general de ‘neuroderecho’ en la discusión mundial actual, este artículo analiza el concepto de ‘lo mental’ contenido en la primera ley de Neuroderechos en el Mundo en actual proceso de discusión en el Senado de Chile (Boletín N° 13.828-19 del Senado de la República de Chile). Se señala que la caracterización del concepto en cuestión no solo podría dificultar la creación de marcos legales específicos respecto de la protección de los sujetos ante el mal uso de neurotecnologías, sino que también podrían oscurecer la toma de decisiones en torno a la interpretación de la ley.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• ¿Está el Derecho Penal al margen de discusiones axiológicas? a propósito de la sentencia del tribunal constitucional chileno sobre la despenalización de la interrupción del embarazo

  Revista Chilena de Derecho · 2022-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  En este trabajo se formulan algunos comentarios a la sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional chileno que declara constitucional la nueva regulación que presenta el art. 119 del Código Sanitario. Esta modificación permite la occisión del que está por nacer ante supuestas situaciones de necesidad e inexigibilidad. Se pretende exponer que, en oposición a lo que indica la prevención del Tribunal Constitucional, la problemática del nuevo art. 119 se encuentra situada un campo axiológico. La tesis jurídico-penal presentada en este artículo descansa en la metarregla del doble efecto, que exige distinguir entre aquellas acciones en que se procura el homicidio de un inocente (per se) y aquellas acciones en que la muerte se desencadena como efecto colateral (per accidens) en situaciones de estado de necesidad.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Rodrigo Andrés Guerra Espinosa

  Universidad de Los Andes, Chile

  9 shared

• Luigi Cornacchia

  9 shared

• Kurt Weyland

  8 shared

• Matthew Rhodes-Purdy

  Clemson University

  5 shared

• Amy H. Liu

  2 shared

• Luis L. Schenoni

  University College London

  2 shared

• Eric L. McDaniel

  2 shared

• Zeynep Somer‐Topcu

  2 shared

Labs

• The Texas Politics ProjectPI

  The Texas Politics Project conducts regular, non-partisan, statewide polls of registered voters in Texas, and makes the results and data available for public use.