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This article analyzes the constitution of the area of studies on the history and development of political science in Latin America over the past ten years. Several studies have been proposed to account for this process showing the growth of the discipline in the region. In this paper we will highlight the main actors and their scientific and academic production, as well as the processes of institutionalization and professionalization of political science. This article aims to classify these studies from the early exploratory approaches up to the production of more sofisticated descriptive works, from a comparative perspective, in order to finally arrive at the new current trends that attempt to perform a “metatheoretical" approach with contributions from epistemology, sociology of knowledge and the history of the science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyze what personal traits define a good politician from the perspective of the Latin-American legislators. In addition to verifying whether these qualities are the same elected by citizens, in this work I compare them with the qualities that serve to win elections. Furthermore, different analyses remark the effect that political knowledge has on these preferences, making charisma more attractive among citizens with low levels of political sophistication. However, little is known about the impact of this variable for politicians. This article measures a)whether education and political knowledge also alter the perception of the deputies on what characteristics are more valued b) which of these characteristics serve better to gain elections, as well as c) the influence of constituents' political sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]