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Camila Vergara
Camila Vergara, Chilean national, is a political scientist, historian and journalist whose work deals with democracy, inequality, corruption and domination. She is currently working with the University of Cambridge within the scope of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship.

Education
Camila Vergara holds two Bachelor degrees from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in Journalism and Media Studies (1997-2000), and History (2000-2004) with a thesis on Women's Movements during the Transition to Democracy in Chile (1987-1990). Later, she obtained a graduate certificate in Publishing from Harvard University (2005-2006). She further embarked on Masters studies that she completed at the New York University (Latin, American and Caribbean studies), New School for Social Research (Political Theory), and Columbia University (Political Theory), where she also was awarded distinctions for her PhD in Political Science.

Research
Doctor Vergara's research interests have been directed towards gender equality in Chile, the philosophical background of Democracy, corruption and oligarchic domination. As a political philosopher, in her most recent research, Vergara highlights the systemic shortcomings of western democracies and proposes a solution that could substitute the current oppression, inequality and exclusion intrinsic in modern democratic regimes. Her concern regards “access to power”, which she deems to be too narrow: expressing a vote once before every mandate does not make citizens active members of a democracy that should represent them. On the contrary, a plebeian constituent process would introduce a popular mandate that could exercise its deliberative power through a network of local assemblies. Such a representative system would foster accessibility to a direct democracy that resembles the ancient Greek model, where political rights were highly regarded and people could not only exercise their deliberative power, but also monitor State institutions.

Books

 * Systemic corruption, Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic. Princeton University Press. (2020)
 * República plebeya. Guía prática para constituir el poder popular.. Editorial Sangría. (2020)

Journal Articles

 * "Fear ‘Fear of Fascism, Hope for Popular Empowerment’, NACLA Report on the Americas.
 * "Republican Constitutional Thought: Elitist & Plebeian Interpretations of the Mixed Constitution’ special issue on Republican Studies, History of Political Thought (forth.)


 * ‘Plebeian Populism’ special issue on The People, Democracy, and Populism, Slagmark. (forth.)


 * Towards Material Anti-Oligarchic Constitutionalism’ special issue on Alternatives to Legal Constitutionalism, Revus Journal for Constitutional Theory and Philosophy of Law (forth.)
 * Republican Constitutionalism: Plebeian Institutions and Anti-Oligarchic Rules’ Theoria: A  Journal of Social and Political Theory special issue on Liberty, Property and Democracy in Plebeian Republicanism (forth.)


 * ‘Corruption as Systemic Political Decay’ Philosophy & Social Criticism, 47.3: 322 346.


 * ‘Populism as Plebeian Politics: Inequality, Domination & Popular Empowerment’ Journal of Political Philosophy 28.2: 222-246.


 * ‘The Plebeian People of Populism’ Revue européenne des sciences sociales, special issue La pensée populiste, 58.2: 77-96.

Book Chapters

 * Lenin and the Materialist Critique of Labor Law,’ in The Futures of Lenin. Edited by Alla Ivanchikov & Robert Maclean. SUNY Press.
 * ‘From Chile to New York City: Systemic Corruption and Oligarchic Domination,’ in Talking about Global Inequality. Edited by Christian Olaf Christiansen, Oliver Bugge Hunt, Mélanie Lindbjerg, Sofía Mercader & Priyanka Jha. Palgrave (forth.)


 * Machiavelli's Republican Constituent Power’ in Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy. New Readings, Edited by Diogo Pires Aurélio & Andre Santos Campos. Brill ‘Political Action, Revolutionary Parties and the Transition to a Republic of Councils’ in Rosa Luxemburg: New Perspectives on Life, Works and Impact, V2 edited by Frank Jacob. Karl Dietz Verlag 2020


 * ‘Populism: Plebeian Power against Oligarchy’ in Constituent Power: Law, Popular Rule, and Politics. Edited by M. Arvidsson, L. Brännström & P. Minkkinen. Edinburgh University Press. ‘Crisis Government: The Populist as Plebeian Dictator’ in Mapping Populism: A Guide to Understanding and Studying Populism. Edited by Amit Ron and Majia Nadesan. Routledge.