LSE seminar features Natalia Bueno

Mathias Poertner, a convenor of the London School of Economics’ Latin American Politics Seminar, used X on May 19 to flag a seminar featuring Emory University political scientist Natalia Bueno. LSE’s seminar page lists Bueno as the speaker for the May 20 session of the Latin American Politics Seminar series. The event centered on Bueno’s paper, “Coordination Advantage: How Partisan Favoritism Persists Under Accountability Institutions,” a working paper co-authored with Fernando Meireles. The paper asks why partisan favoritism can endure even where formal rules are meant to constrain discretion. ### What was Natalia Bueno presenting at LSE? Natalia Bueno was listed by LSE as the speaker for the May 20 Latin American Politics Seminar, held from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in room CBG.4.17 and online via Zoom. The seminar series is run through LSE’s Latin America Research Group and is described by the school as a venue for research-focused exchanges on Latin American politics among staff, doctoral students and outside scholars. (lse.ac.uk) The paper presented was titled “Coordination Advantage: How Partisan Favoritism Persists Under Accountability Institutions.” Sciety’s listing for the preprint identifies the authors as Fernando Meireles and Natalia Bueno and shows a latest version dated Nov. 15, 2025. ### What does “coordination advantage” mean in the paper? The paper argues that partisan favoritism can persist not only through overt rule-breaking, but through partisan networks that help aligned local and central officials coordinate inside formal rules. (lse.ac.uk) The abstract says shared partisanship creates links between local and central officials that provide “privileged access to information and informal guidance,” helping aligned local officials submit more and better grant applications. (sciety.org) Brazil is the central empirical case in the paper. The authors say municipal grant-request and allocation data show aligned mayors submitted more proposals, received more funding and achieved greater compliance with technical standards than unaligned mayors. They also say original data on legislators’ municipal visits and ministerial schedules show partisan ties “activate coordination.” ### Why is the argument notable in Latin American politics research? (sciety.org) Accountability institutions are usually designed to reduce discretion and make favoritism harder to sustain. The paper’s contribution, as described in the abstract, is to shift attention from the payoffs of favoritism to the mechanisms that make it possible under those constraints. Rather than saying formal oversight has no effect, the authors argue partisan networks can help officials navigate those rules more effectively. (sciety.org) Natalia Bueno’s broader research profile fits that focus. Emory University describes her as an associate professor of political science, and her personal site says her work examines comparative politics, public policy, housing policy and elections using a multi-method approach. Her publications page lists “Coordination Advantage” as a working paper under review. ### Who is Natalia Bueno? Emory University identifies Bueno as an associate professor of political science. (sciety.org) Her faculty biography says her research has examined public policy, housing policy, elections and political behavior, with awards from the American Political Science Association’s public policy section and other scholarly groups. Bueno’s publications page also places the seminar paper alongside recent work on misinformation, public policy and distributive politics in Brazil. (polisci.emory.edu) That makes the LSE appearance part of an active research agenda on how institutions, policy design and political incentives interact. ### Where can readers find the next step? LSE’s seminar page says the Latin American Politics Seminar is open to faculty, fellows and PhD students working on Latin American politics and related issues, with both in-person and online participation. (polisci.emory.edu) Poertner’s May 19 post, referenced in the source briefing, linked to the seminar recording and slides, while the paper itself is available online as a preprint. (lse.ac.uk) (nataliabueno.github.io)