Global challenges, regional responses: Latin American politics in comparative perspective

Latin America stands out today for its fast-changing, often unstable political landscape. Governments and societies have been navigating a myriad of domestic and international problems, ranging from anti-institutional protest movements and economic instability, to the rise of far-right parties and the anti-democratic use of institutions, growing politically-motivated violence, and controversies around the exploitation of natural resources key to global development, such as lithium. While global in nature, these challenges have elicited particular responses in the region that have both replicated and subverted patterns seen in other regions across the world, making their study unique and relevant in comparative perspective. This year's ECPR Section on Latin American politics encourages a comparative focus within Latin America, and across other world regions, to explore the multifaceted 'wicked problems' that set the agenda across the global and the local. We invite panels and papers that shed light on the concrete form that global challenges take in the region, draw parallels with other regional and global experiences, and highlight contextualised dynamics, conflicts, adaptations, and responses. We will place special emphasis on understanding what is specific in the way global challenges affect Latin American countries and societies, but also what experiences and insights can transcend borders and to what extent they can be compared to similar trends in Europe and other world regions.