States and Institutions of Governance in Latin America (SIGLA)

States and Institutions of Governance in Latin America (SIGLA) is an online multilingual database on legal and political institutions in Latin America. Our mission is to make systematic information about these institutions freely available to scholars, government actors, business leaders, and civil society organizations in the Americas and around the world. By democratizing access to information about governance in Latin America, SIGLA increases transparency, facilitates empirical research, and enables well-informed decision-making in multiple sectors. SIGLA provides the following for each institution included in the database: • general information on structure and functioning; • data to measure key characteristics such as accessibility, independence, and authority; • membership and leadership data; • and a list of the key laws governing actions and procedures. In the long term, SIGLA will provide cross-nationally comparable, current and historical, qualitative and quantitative data in English, Spanish, and Portuguese on institutions in 20 Latin American countries including: • the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government; • military, security, and law enforcement entities; • institutions of accountability and transparency; • central banks and state-owned enterprises; • electoral systems; • and parties and unions. SIGLA is hosted by Georgetown University and its Center for Latin American Studies, directed by Diana Kapiszewski (Associate Professor, Department of Government), and powered by Georgetown students. With the support of generous funding from various entities at Georgetown University and the Institute for Humane Studies, a prototype launched in April 2022 with information on international institutions and key national-level institutions of governance including Constitutions, Codes, Executives, and Legislatures in three countries (Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico).