Cristóbal Bellolio
Cristóbal Bellolio Badiola is a Chilean political theorist, lawyer, and academic. He works as an associate professor at the School of Government of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, where he teaches political theory and public ethics. His research focuses on liberalism, democracy, secularism, and how science relates to politics. He is also a frequent commentator in Chilean media.
Bellolio studied law and political science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, earning his law degree in 2007. He later studied at University College London, where he earned an MA in Legal and Political Theory in 2011 and a PhD in Political Philosophy in 2017.
His books include Ateos fuera del clóset (2014), Pinochet, Lagos y Nosotros: Ensayos sobre la cuestión constituyente (2015), Liberalismo. Una cartografía (2020), and La era del pesimismo democrático (2024). He has published in journals such as Politics, Res Publica, Social Epistemology, Law & Philosophy, and Religions. In 2018 he won the Res Publica postgraduate essay prize for “Science as Public Reason: A Restatement.”
Beyond academia, Bellolio led research funded by Chile’s National Science and Technology Agency (ANID) on “The Climate Challenge to Liberal Democracy” and spent time as a Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago in 2024. He also ran as a candidate for the 2021 Chilean Constitutional Convention for District 11 and writes for outlets like La Tercera, El Mostrador, and Diario Financiero. He comes from the Bellolio family; his grandfather is Blas Bellolio, and his cousins include Jaime Bellolio and Álvaro Bellolio.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 22:00 (CET).