Embassy Information
Embassy Event
US SPECIALIST TALKS ABOUT THE VALUE OF STRONG INSTITUTIONS IN A DEMOCRACY
March 12-15, 2007
The US Embassy in Buenos Aires hosted a 4 day speaker program on “The Value of Strong Institutions in a Democracy,” March 12-15, 2007. Dr. Strom Thacker, Director of the Latin American Studies Program at Boston University and Associate Professor of International Relations, visited Argentina to discuss the indispensable foundations of a sustainable democracy and the key factors that need to be present in societies for strong democracies to flourish.
Mr. Thacker is the author of “Good Government: A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance.” He is a Faculty Affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. Thacker is currently working on a project on the long-term relationship between democracy and development. Programs were held in Buenos Aires and Mendoza.
To get more information on this subject, check this information guide (which includes links to resources in English and Spanish)
Strom Thacker Biography
Director of Latin American Studies Program; Associate Professor of International Relations. (B.A., Pomona College; M.A., Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Specialization: International and Comparative Political Economy, Governance, Development; Latin American Studies; Mexican political economy and politics.
Professor Thacker’s research and teaching focus broadly on questions of political economy and development, with particular emphasis on Mexico and Latin America, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), governance and human development. His books include Big Business, the State, and Free Trade: Constructing Coalitions in Mexico (Cambridge University Press, 2000), and Good Government: A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance (under review, with John Gerring). He is currently working on a project on the long-term relationship between democracy and development, and another on the politics of public health. He has published articles in the American Political Science Review, the British Journal of Political Science, Business and Politics, International Organization, the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, and World Politics. He also has an ongoing interest in the politics of foreign aid and lending, and the International Monetary Fund. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. He has been a Visiting Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University, a Susan Louise Dyer Peace Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and a Fulbright Scholar. He has also received research grants funded by BU’s SPRInG program, BU’s Pardee Center , the Mellon Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, and the University of North Carolina . He taught at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) before his appointment to Boston University.