In recognition of Constitution Day 2023, the University Libraries and the Division of Student Affairs invites you to learn more about constitutions in Latin American countries and the efforts of presidents to alter them.

In this lecture, Dr. Ignacio Arana, assistant professor at the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Security and Technology, draws on years of studying presidential behavior to examine the characteristics of leaders who undermine their countries’ democracies through constitutional power grabs. This lecture will discuss the individual characteristics of presidents who attempt to change the constitutions of their countries to relax their term limits or increase their powers.

Dr. Arana is a comparativist who focuses on two lines of inquiry. He specializes in elite behavior by analyzing how the personality traits and other individual differences of heads of government impact executive governance and studies the consequences of variation in political institutions across countries, with an emphasis on Latin America. Dr. Arana examines executive-legislative relations, informal institutions, gender and politics, and judicial politics.

He has recently completed the book manuscript “Presidential Personalities and Constitutional Power Grabs in Latin America, 1945-2021.”

The event will include an introduction to CMU’s Posner copy of the Bill of Rights by Curator of Special Collections Dr. Samuel Lemley.

This event is co-sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and the University Libraries in recognition of Constitution Day.

This is a free virtual event. Please register to attend. An event link will be sent out prior to the event.

Please direct registration and event accessibility concerns or questions to it-help@cmu.edu.

For event-day troubleshooting, please contact Dallas Trescher at dtresche@andrew.cmu.edu.

Carnegie Mellon University programs and events are open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, belief, veteran status or genetic information.