Mariana Llanos and Magna Inácio Win the Founders Award

The two scholars received their award from the Presidents and Executive Politics section. The award was presented on 5 September 2015 as part of the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting in San Francisco. "Inácio and Llanos' well-crafted, insightful study will set the agenda for research on the development of presidential institutions in Latin America," said the jury. Magna Inácio is a scholar at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Mariana Llanos is a senior research fellow at the GIGA and head of the institute's Legitimacy and Efficiency of Political Systems research programme. The focus of their study is the power behind the presidents in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay. The researchers analysed the organisational structures and actors within the presidential system in each of the four countries from the end of dictatorship up to the present. Some of the results are discussed in the GIGA Working Paper "The Institutional Presidency from a Comparative Perspective: Argentina and Brazil since the 1980s," which was published in October 2014. The American Political Science Association is the renowned professional organisation of political scientists in the USA. The Presidents and Executive Politics section is one of the most established sections within APSA. The annual Founders Award honouring Bert Rockman is given for the best paper on executive politics presented at the previous year’ APSA annual meeting.