Tulane University

The Central American Colloquium, sponsored by Tulane’s Center for Inter-American Policy and Research was held on June 3rd and 4th in San José, Costa Rica. Four round tables were held during the colloquium at which topics such as the political economy, state formation and political regimes and electoral stability in Central America were discussed.

The main purpose of the conference was to develop a space of dialog to discuss about Central American democracies. The conference was held at Centro de Investigación y Adiestramiento Político Administrativo (CIAPA) and had the participation of ten region specialist from seven different institutions: Tulane University, University of North Carolina (Greensboro), Vanderbilt University, Texas A&M University, Universidad de Salamanca, Estado de la Nación and CIAPA.

After the Honduras’ crisis in 2009, it was important to think about democracy, consolidation and the quality of democracy in the region as well as the threats for stability in each country. For that reason, the dialogue was organized around four different panels: economic challenges, political challenges, political parties and, finally, economic and political disequilibria.

View the full program.

Read the paper by Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson and Joseph Ura
“From strengthening institutions to a coup: Explaining the ouster of President Zelaya as an outcome of a game of institutional emergence”