DOUGLAS A. CHALMERS is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and Director of the University's Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies. He was Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and has been visiting professor at the Colegio Nacional de Mexico. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on Latin America.

MARIO DO CARMO CAMPELLO DE SOUZA is Professor of Political Science at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University, and at IDESP (Instituto de Estudos Economicos, Socias e Politicos de Sao Paulo) and a former Edward Larocque Tinker Visiting Professor at Columbia University. She is the author of various articles on political parties in Brazil.

ATILIO BORON is an Argentine political sociologist and director of EURAL (Center for European and Latin American Research) in Buenos Aires, and has been Professor of Political Science at FLASCO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) and at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is a former Edward Larocque Tinker Visiting Professor at Columbia University, and is the author of numerous articles on Chilean, Argentine, and West European politics.