Mariana Llanos

Prof. Mariana Llanos is an extraordinary Professor for Democratic Institutions in the Global South at the University of Erfurt's Willy Brandt School of Public Policy and a Lead Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). She holds a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on Latin American political institutions, presidentialism, and democratic accountability. Llanos has published widely in journals like Government & Opposition and Democratization, and co-edited the open-access volume Latin America in Times of Turbulence. She was awarded the APSA Jewell-Loewenberg Prize (2022) and the APSA Founders Award (2015).

Her research explores presidential impeachment, court-executive relations, and the personalization of power. She supervises PhD students Jayane Maia, Eduardo Tamaki Ryo, and Alina Ripplinger. Llanos teaches courses on autocratization in the Global South and democratic institutions. She co-edits the Journal of Politics in Latin America and led GIGA’s Research Program on Accountability and Participation until 2022.

Key contributions include analysis of term limits in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, the impact of the pandemic on court-executive dynamics, and legislative oversight mechanisms. Her work bridges comparative politics with institutional analysis, emphasizing democratic resilience in challenging contexts.