Javiera Arce Riffo

The internal organisation of political parties in South America and its effects on democracy

Principal supervisor: Dr Malu Gatto, UCL Institute of the Americas.
Subsidiary supervisor: Dr Néstor Castañeda, UCL Institute of the Americas.

My research project focuses on what happens in the internal life of left-wing parties in South America when they achieve power, using a democratic and progressive brand. It is possible to appreciate that – when in power – these parties promote democracy and extensive rights are for citizens, but not for participants of different parties. Leaders introduce another kind of practice (non-democratic) to maintain the parties quiet while they manage political power. Those practices consist of the existence of informal institutions, which compete with formal procedures during political recruitments for internal and external elections; and recruitment based on gender-biased, which excludes women and participants from territories far from the national capitals. Conversely, it is also noticeable that the precariousness of political debate within a neoliberalist context of depoliticization, political parties usually avoid political and ideological discussions, and provide extensive space for technocrats to decide public policies. Finally, there is a considerable gap between the leftist discourse and the neoliberal public policies that some countries exhibit. In this research, three parties will be analysed: The Worker’s Party, Brazil (Partido dos Trabalhadores); The Movement Towards Socialism, Bolivia (MAS); and The Socialist Party, Chile (Partido Socialista). The three cases have been in and out of office over similar periods. As such, studying their trajectories from the re-democratization to the present would provide an assessment about whether and how exerting political power changed the employment of non-democratic parties within each case, while also offering a comparative perspective. 

PhD funding

• Beca Chile Scholarship for Doctoral Studies Abroad (2020)

Education

• BA in Government, University of Chile (2010)
• MA Political Science, Pontificial Catholic University of Chile (2014)

Awards | Grants | Scholarships 

• Postgraduate Chilean Scholarship for Master Studies granted by the National Research and Development Agency (2013)

Conference presentations and talks

• 2016 XXXIV Congress of the Latin American Studies Association. Panel: Public Policy Reforms and Institutions in Chile, track: Politics and Public Policy for the LASA 2016 Congress. Presentation: ‘Reform to the Electoral Systems in Chile: A first Step for the Inclusion of Women into Politics’.
• 2017 Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO-Chile). Seminar Women in Politics: elections and protagonists in comparative perspective. Presentation: the gender quotas of the 2017 parliamentary election. Notes for an autopsy.
• 2019 Political Analysis Argentinean Society (SAAP). Presentation in the Political Parties’ track ‘Nondemocratic practices in the Chilean political parties: the case of Socialist Party of Chile’.
• 2019 International IDEA and Semillas para la Democracia Foundation. Workshop for academic and political parties’ stakeholders: ‘Public financing with gender perspective’.

Edited book

• El Estado y las Mujeres: el complejo camino hacia una necesaria transformación de las instituciones (RIL Editores, 2018) ISBN 978-956-01-0511-0.

Articles and book chapters

• Javier Arce Riffo, Julieta Suárez-Cao, ‘La paridad de género y la lucha por una representación efectiva de las mujeres en política’, in Revista Anuario de Derecho Público (Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales, 2022)
• Javiera Arce Riffo, ‘El feminismo institucional y la Convención Constitucional chilena. Una necesaria intersección’, in Brito, Sofía (coord.) Desafíos para nuestro momento constituyente (Editorial LOM, 2021)
• Javiera Arce Riffo, ‘Gender Parity in the Chilean Constitutional Convention: What Does mean for Chilean Democracy?’, in Oxford Human Rights Hub. A global perspective of Human Rights (Faculty of Law, Oxford University, 2020). Access here: https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/gender-parity-in-the-chilean-constitutional-convention-what-does-it-mean-for-chilean-democracy/
• Javiera Arce Riffo, ‘Las contradicciones del mayo feminista de 2018. “Las contradicciones del mayo feminista”, in Revista Iberoamericana, 19, 72, ISSN: 2255-520X, 2019, 234-240, DOI/URL: 1 0.18441/ibam.19.2019.72. 223-245.
• Javiera Arce Riffo, ‘Abriendo la caja negra de los partidos políticos chilenos: expresiones de la desigualdad género en la militancia política’, in Revista Jurídica de Buenos Aires , 43, 97, ISSN: 0326-7431, (AbeledoPerrot S.A, 2018), 217-238, DOI/URL: http://www.derecho.uba.ar/publicaciones/rev_juridica/rj ba-2018-ii.pdf
• Javiera Arce Riffo, ‘Ley de cuotas a la chilena: notas para una autopsia’, in: Miranda, L. y Suárez-Cao, J. La política siempre ha sido cosa de mujeres: elecciones y protagonistas en Chile y en la región. ISBN: 978956205269-6. (Santiago, FLACSO, 2018). https://flacsochile.org/doc/2019/Libro_Politica_siempre_v.FINALcorregida.pdf

Book review

• ¿Por qué funciona el populismo?, in Revista ReCerca, Revista de Pensamient I Análisi. ISSN: 11306149. (Barcelona, Universitat Jaume I, 2020)

Report

2018 | ‘Informe de diagnóstico: Análisis sobre las relaciones de género en la Universidad de Valparaíso.’, ISBN 978-956-214-198-7

Teaching

As thesis supervisor:

Media

• Interview by Chilean newspaper La Tercera | June 14, 2021
• Interview in Chilean blog The Clinic | August 19, 2021
• Interview in Observatorio de Genero y Equidad (OGE - Chile) newsletter | September 13, 2021

Memberships

• Asociación Chilena de Ciencia Política
• Latin America Studies Association
• Asociación Latinoamericana de Ciencia Política
• Red de Politólogas

Legislative experience

Political activity

• Member of Socialist Party of Chile since 2003 to 2021.
• Spokesperson, Presidential campaign of Sen. Yasna Provoste during the Chilean presidential elections of 2021