The debate about the relative importance of the personality traits of presidents has a long history. Until the mid-1970s, scholars of the presidency extensively focused on the uniqueness of the individuals that held office. However, the difficulty in capturing presidential personalities and measuring their impact on executive politics led to a significant quantitative shift that focused more on the institutions within which presidents operate. This change produced a long-lasting divide between researchers interested in the "institutional" presidency and those focused on the "personal" presidency. I propose to integrate both approaches by incorporating insights from differential psychology to treat the personality traits of presidents as independent variables. In support of the argument, I use data from an expert survey that captured psychometric traits of presidents who governed the Western Hemisphere in 1945-2012 to reassess an influential study about Latin American presidents. The results show that adding openness to experience leads to a deeper understanding of presidential approval. I conclude by arguing that measuring the personality traits of all sorts of leaders is necessary to modernize the study of elites.

Can weak judicial institutions facilitate the advancement of women to the high courts? We explore the relationship between weak institutions and gender diversification by analyzing the consequences of judicial reshuffles in Latin America. Our theory predicts that institutional disruptions will facilitate the appointment of women justices, but only when left parties control the nomination process. We test this argument using difference‐in‐differences and dynamic panel models for 18 Latin American countries between 1961 and 2014. The analysis offers support for our hypothesis, but gains in gender diversification are modest in size and hard to sustain over time. Political reshuffles may produce short‐term advances for women in the judiciary, but they do not represent a path to substantive progress in gender equality.

Este artículo analiza quiénes y cómo influyen en la toma de decisiones presidenciales al interior del Poder Ejecutivo. En base a entrevistas realizadas a 21 ex presidentes, se argumenta que la tensión entre asesores presidenciales y ministros varía según el tipo de liderazgo presidencial y si los ministros son seleccionados libremente por el mandatario o son impuestos por partidos políticos. La interacción de estas dos variables condiciona las relaciones entre ministros y asesores, la cual puede llevar a que los asesores complementen, sustituyan, acomoden o compitan con las tareas de los ministros. Para sistematizar este argumento, se propone una categorización del grado de conflicto que existe entre ministros y asesores. Palabras Clave: presidentes, ministros, asesores, Poder Ejecutivo. Who Whispers to the president? advisors versus ministers in latin americaThis article examines who influences presidential decisions within the Executive and how this occurs. Based on interviews with twenty-one former presidents, this paper argues that the tension between advisors and ministers varies according to the type of presidential leadership and whether the president freely appoints ministers or they are imposed by political parties. The interaction between both variables conditions relations between advisors and ministers, allowing advisors to complement, substitute, accommodate or compete with ministers' duties. To systematize this argument, this paper proposes a categorization of the degree of conflict that exists between ministers and advisors.

Recent research suggests that the Chilean Congress is marginalised in the policymaking process, especially when setting the budget. This paper argues that previous studies have overlooked the fact that the legislature uses two amendment tools -specifications and marginal notes -to increase the national budget and reallocate resources within ministries. This behaviour contradicts the constitution, which only allows Congress to reduce the executive's budget bill. To test this empirically, a pooled two-stage time-series cross-sectional analysis is conducted on ministries for the years 1991-2010. The findings clarify how the legislature surpasses its constitutional limits and demonstrate that specifications are useful to predict when Congress increases or decreases a ministry's budget.

China is a central actor in Latin America. Between 2002 and 2020, total trade between the regions grew by almost eighteen times, from $18 billion to $318 billion. China is the main trading partner of Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay and the second-largest trading partner of several other countries. It has free trade agreements with Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru and in 2022 is negotiating one with Ecuador. Furthermore, between 2005 and 2020, Chinese banks gave more than $137 billion in loans to the region. Most of Latin America has joined China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global strategy centered on developing infrastructure projects around the world. Since the outbreak of COVID-19,