Lourdes Sola (Brazil), Past President

Lourdes Sola, Ph.D in Politics, University of Oxford, is professor (retired) of the Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo, and currently on the Executive Board of the Center for Public Policy, University of São Paulo, where she coordinates research projects on the Politics of Economic Transformation in Emerging Market Democracies.

She has served as Chair of the International Political Economy Committee at the Institute of Advanced Study, of the University of São Paulo; as President of the Brazilian Political Science Association (1996-1998 and 1998-2000); and President of IPSA (2006-2009). She was a visiting professor at St. Antony´s College (Oxford) and the Kellogg Institute (University of Notre Dame); and was Holder of the Rio Branco Chair for Brazilian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Currently she serves as member of the Advisory Board of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA); on the Board of Directors of the Global Development Network (GDN); and on the Executive Committee of the International Social Sciences Council (ISSC).

Her publications include more than fifty articles in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English mainly on the political economy of democratization and economic transformation, and on the politics of central banking in Brazil. She is the author of several books such as “O Estado da Transição – Política e Economia na Nova República” (São Paulo, 1987); “Estado, Mercado, Democracia” (São Paulo, 1992);  “Idéias Econômicas, Decisões Políticas” (São Paulo, 1994). She co-edited with Laurence Whitehead, “Banco Central, Autoridade Política e Democratização – Um equilíbrio delicado” (Rio de Janeiro, 2002); and “Statecrafting Monetary Authority - Democracy and Financial Order in Brazil” (2005,Oxford).