I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs and Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at Wake Forest University. I received my Ph.D. in political science from the University of Notre Dame.
My research focuses on comparative political institutions, elections and electoral justice, with a regional specialization in Latin America. My work has been published in The Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Election Law Journal, Política y Gobierno and Colombia Internacional. I am currently editor of Política y Gobierno. In my current book project, entitled Disputed Elections in Presidential Democracies: When Losers Hold Democracy Hostage, I study the strategic origins of post-electoral disputes in presidential democracies around the globe. I argue that in democracies, where elections are mostly free and fair, post-election disputes are motivated by loser’s desire to put pressure on the winners and engage in post electoral negotiations that could give some advantage to the losers. Runner-up parties are using post electoral stability as a bargaining chip in exchange for short term benefits for the losing party such as positions in the new cabinet, targeted budget, or the approval of key legislation. My key findings are that the quality of the election is not related with the probability of observing post-election disputes, but other features of the political environment that affect the cost-benefit analysis of engaging in post-election disputes, such as the size of the losing party in congress are. Also, we observe more parties in the cabinet of the new president when the presidential election was followed by post-election disputes. Besides the quantitative evidence, I present in depth studies of the presidential elections of 2006 in Mexico and 1994 in Dominican Republic. Additionally, I have been an Assistant Professor at CIDE in Mexico City, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of the Andes in Colombia, an Electoral Integrity Project Fellow, a visiting fellow at the University of California San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, and a Garza Ph.D. Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Previously, I served as an advisor of Mexico’s Chief Justice at the Supreme Court and as an advisor to the President of Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute. |