My research focuses on the intersections between authoritarian regimes, democratization, and political parties.
My monograph (under review), Conservative Party-Building in Latin America: Authoritarian Inheritance and Counterrevolutionary Struggle, examines conservative parties formed in Latin America between 1978 and 2010. The book emphasizes the paradoxical role of “authoritarian inheritance,” or resources inherited from former dictatorships, in launching some new conservative parties to democratic success.
My book Life after Dictatorship: Authoritarian Successor Parties Worldwide (Cambridge University Press, 2018) (co-edited with Scott Mainwaring) launches a new research agenda on “authoritarian successor parties,” or parties that emerge from authoritarian regimes but operate after a transition to democracy.
My book Challenges of Party-Building in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2016) (co-edited with Steven Levitsky, Brandon Van Dyck, and Jorge I. Domínguez) examines how extraordinary conflict has enabled a handful of new parties to beat the odds and succeed at a time of widespread party breakdown.
For applications of my research to current events, see my pieces in The Washington Post here and here and The New York Times here.
For an overview of some of my research, see my Kellogg Institute Working Paper “Authoritarian Successor Parties Worldwide: A Framework for Analysis.”
