- I am a political scientist interested in electoral behavior and comparative politics, with a focus on the impact of h... moreI am a political scientist interested in electoral behavior and comparative politics, with a focus on the impact of historical legacies on electoral turnout and the reasons behind the vote for European populist parties. In my research, I mainly use comparative public opinion survey data and quantitative methods. I am/have been involved in H2020 MICADO and H2020 RePast research projects.edit
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This deliverable consists of two parts: Logbook for Development (Part I) and Convergence Handbook (Part II). Both of these documents were aimed at bridging the gaps between the research part of the project and the development phase,... more
This deliverable consists of two parts: Logbook for Development (Part I) and Convergence Handbook (Part II). Both of these documents were aimed at bridging the gaps between the research part of the project and the development phase, allowing for convergence between all partners and pilot cities on the essential requirements for the development of the MICADO digital solution to migrant integration. Based on the co-creation, co-design and interviewing process conducted by MICADO researchers in 2019 in MICADO's 4 pilot cities (Bologna, Antwerp, Hamburg and Madrid), the gathered insights from different local stakeholders – public authorities (PAs), migrants and civil society organizations (CSOs) – were compiled into a Logbook for Development. The Logbook gathers and systematized in a comprehensive way the collected data on the migrant population in the pilot cities; demands of PAs, migrants and CSOs; existing Apps and digital tools usage, assigning them an order of priority (critica...
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espanolEl sistema electoral local, regulado primero en Ley 39/1978 y luego en la Ley Organica 5/1985, de Regimen Electoral General (LOREG) ha permanecido relativamente estable a lo largo de cuarenta anos de democracia local. Bajo este... more
espanolEl sistema electoral local, regulado primero en Ley 39/1978 y luego en la Ley Organica 5/1985, de Regimen Electoral General (LOREG) ha permanecido relativamente estable a lo largo de cuarenta anos de democracia local. Bajo este sistema electoral se han ido produciendo diferentes resultados electorales. Progresivamente se ha ido reduciendo la presencia de candidatos independientes y de partidos locales, a favor de los grandes partidos nacionales o regionales. Sin embargo, en las elecciones de 2015, el sistema electoral proporcional ha trasladado a los plenos municipales una mayor diversidad de opciones electorales. Esta mayor diversidad politica del pleno municipal no ha producido por si mayor inestabilidad en el gobierno municipal. Varias son las reglas del regimen local, contenidas en parte en la Ley 7/1985, reguladora de las Bases del Regimen Local (LBRL) y en parte en la LOREG, que limitan la posible inestabilidad del gobierno local cuando los plenos son muy plurales; la d...
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Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Derecho, Departamento de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales. Fecha de lectura: 18-03-2021Esta tesis tiene embargado el acceso al texto completo... more
Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Derecho, Departamento de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales. Fecha de lectura: 18-03-2021Esta tesis tiene embargado el acceso al texto completo hasta el 18-09-2022Electoral turnout rates in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are lower and their recent decline steeper than in the West. Poland is a key outlier in the region, as it did not experience any turnout boost in the first years of democracy and it has exceptionally low turnout levels. Existing accounts focus on the institutional context after 1989 and the individual characteristics as drivers of the lower turnout in CEE and Poland, with limited explanatory power, especially for the latter case. In a nutshell, this thesis aims to shed light on the reasons behind the lower turnout rates in the postcommunist European countries, and in Poland particularly, by taking a historical turn and tracing the impact of the long-lasting legacies of the pr...
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The report aimed to set the basis of MICADO project and shed some light on the challenges this innovation action faces and establish a more accurate picture of migrant integration in the four cities of interest for this project: Antwerp,... more
The report aimed to set the basis of MICADO project and shed some light on the challenges this innovation action faces and establish a more accurate picture of migrant integration in the four cities of interest for this project: Antwerp, Bologna, Hamburg and Madrid. The first section of this report presents a combination of a classic <strong>systematic literature review</strong> of the state of the art of <strong>migrant integration at a European, national and local level in the last 5 years</strong>, with a quantitative text analysis that studies the co-occurrence of different topics of interest. This up-to-date analysis includes 558 documents including reports and scientific articles from both the European Union and national scientific journals. The thorough revision of the literature brings us the opportunity to provide the MICADO project with a clear and critically assesed definition and conceptualisation of key terms, and discover which evidence-based in...
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This article aims is to problematize and analyze the relationship between age and voter turnout in Poland. Our analyses use the best publicly available empirical data, i.e. Polish National Election Study (PGSW), to confirm clear... more
This article aims is to problematize and analyze the relationship between age and voter turnout in Poland. Our analyses use the best publicly available empirical data, i.e. Polish National Election Study (PGSW), to confirm clear relationships between age and voter turnout. These relationships are essential for the democratic process and political representation. They are crucial for many aspects of social, political and economic life, and are of particular importance nowadays, at the time of fundamental demographic changes in Poland. Increasing disparities between different age groups result in changes in their level of representation. The analysis of the influence of age on electoral participation (life cycle, historical period/moment, cohort) indicates a greater importance of the life cycle and a (relatively) lesser significance of generational and cohort experiences. The differences registered between particular age groups are not an evidence of generational differences in (propensity for) participation, rather, the life cycle and its phases have a greater importance.
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Abstract This article assesses the impact of individual-level experiences of political socialisation under communist rule on the propensity to vote in elections after 1989 in eight Central and Eastern European countries. Using CSES and... more
Abstract This article assesses the impact of individual-level experiences of political socialisation under communist rule on the propensity to vote in elections after 1989 in eight Central and Eastern European countries. Using CSES and CEU data, it sheds light on the heterogeneity of the effects of communist socialisation on electoral turnout, showing how these effects are jointly dependent on the coerciveness of the previous regime and individual religious observance. While exposure to authoritarian communist socialisation reduces the likelihood of electoral participation independently of religiosity, socialisation in totalitarian times only has a negative effect on the voting propensity of frequent churchgoers.
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Poland will hold the first round of its delayed presidential election on Sunday. Piotr Zagorski and Fernando Casal Bertoa present five paradoxes that make the election exceptional.
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This article deepens the analysis of the effects of immigration on the vote for Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, focusing on education levels of both natives and immigrants. By analysing the immigrant population in 101 regions... more
This article deepens the analysis of the effects of immigration on the vote for Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, focusing on education levels of both natives and immigrants. By analysing the immigrant population in 101 regions from 11 European countries, we show that in contexts with a large immigrant presence, the low-educated voters tend to support Populist Radical Right Parties to a greater degree than those who are more educated. However, when the ratio of skilled immigrants is high, also the more educated population tends to support these parties. Hence, our analysis adds insight into the relationship between immigration, education and Populist Radical Right Parties voting, highlighting the need of focusing at lower levels of aggregation and combining the characteristics of both foreign-born and host populations.
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The traditional Spanish imperfect bipartisanship and the alternation in power that emerged in the early 80s between the center-left PSOE and the conservative PP have shifted towards a multiparty system after the emergence of three new... more
The traditional Spanish imperfect bipartisanship and the alternation in power that emerged in the early 80s between the center-left PSOE and the conservative PP have shifted towards a multiparty system after the emergence of three new parties. At first, as a result of the economic and political representation crises, Podemos (We Can) emerged at the 2014 European Parliament elections. This left-wing populist party managed to grow rapidly among the dissatisfied voters, reaching the third electoral position in the 2015 general elections. In the same contest, the liberal center party Ciudadanos (Citizens) became the fourth political force boosted, among other reasons, by notorious corruption scandals involving high-rank PP's officials and the process of secession in Catalonia. Finally, driven by the same secession process and thanks to the removal from the office of PP's Prime Minister after a motion of no confidence, the support for the populist radical right Vox also experienced a boost, winning 15 percent of the seats in Parliament in the general elections of November 2019. In this research, we describe the contexts which facilitated the irruptions of these new parties, analyze their impact on the Spanish party system, and study their current voters' profiles.
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How does political socialization in a highly fragmented political scene affect propensity to vote? This article focuses on the long-term relationship between the number of political parties and the propensity to turn out in 96... more
How does political socialization in a highly fragmented political scene affect propensity to vote? This article focuses on the long-term relationship between the number of political parties and the propensity to turn out in 96 parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2016 of nearly 100,000 individuals in 31 countries. Although intuitively more options might be expected to translate into a greater likelihood of participating in elections, existing research claims that high levels of party fragmentation instead lead to 'choice overload' and alienate citizens from voting. Building on the theory of voting as a habit, I show that early-adulthood political socialization in a highly fragmented context leaves a footprint of non-voting in subsequent elections. This finding is especially relevant given the recent significant rise in fragmentation of most party systems in Europe, which in light of this research could mean a further decline in turnout rates in many countries in the future.
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[Co-authored with Radosław Markowski] During the long nineteenth century, Poland was divided among the Russian, Habsburg, and Prussian empires. The partition produced regional diversity in political culture and in institutional and... more
[Co-authored with Radosław Markowski]
During the long nineteenth century, Poland was divided among the Russian, Habsburg, and Prussian empires. The partition produced regional diversity in political culture and in institutional and economic development. We examine how the cultural legacies of the empires have influenced the propensity of Poles to cast a ballot in parliamentary elections since 1989. Polish National Election Study individual-level data are used to assess whether higher levels of electoral turnout in Galicia are indeed a legacy of the Habsburg rule. Our results confirm that, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors, there is a positive, substantive and significant effect on turnout of living in the ex-Habsburg part of Poland. This effect can be explained by the frequency of religious service attendance and by ideology. Inhabitants of Galicia not only attend religious services more frequently and are more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of Poland, but also the more frequently they attend church and the closer to the radical right they place themselves, the more mobilized they are to vote. The impact of the legacies of the empires on political behavior in Poland seems persistent.
During the long nineteenth century, Poland was divided among the Russian, Habsburg, and Prussian empires. The partition produced regional diversity in political culture and in institutional and economic development. We examine how the cultural legacies of the empires have influenced the propensity of Poles to cast a ballot in parliamentary elections since 1989. Polish National Election Study individual-level data are used to assess whether higher levels of electoral turnout in Galicia are indeed a legacy of the Habsburg rule. Our results confirm that, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors, there is a positive, substantive and significant effect on turnout of living in the ex-Habsburg part of Poland. This effect can be explained by the frequency of religious service attendance and by ideology. Inhabitants of Galicia not only attend religious services more frequently and are more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of Poland, but also the more frequently they attend church and the closer to the radical right they place themselves, the more mobilized they are to vote. The impact of the legacies of the empires on political behavior in Poland seems persistent.
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Focusing on six populist radical right parties from four Central and Eastern European countries, we show that the factors that account for the vote for these parties in Western Europe do not travel well to Central and Eastern Europe.... more
Focusing on six populist radical right parties from four Central and Eastern European countries, we show that the factors that account for the vote for these parties in Western Europe do not travel well to Central and Eastern Europe. Euroscepticism boosts populist radical right party voting almost without exception, while nativism, regarded as the most important factor in the West, is only relevant in about half of the cases. Moreover, economic deprivation has no impact in Central and Eastern Europe, and political mistrust works in the opposite way to the West.
Research Interests: Sociology, Political Sociology, European Studies, Voting Behavior, Political Science, and 15 morePolitical Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Populism, Electoral Behavior, Elections, Voting, Elections and Voting Behavior, Election Studies, Electoral Studies, Central and Eastern Europe, Radical Right, Euroscepticism, Radical Right-wing Populist Parties, Populismo, Social and political science, and Political Science and public administration
The recent success of right-wing populist parties (RPPs) in Europe has given rise to different explanations. Economic factors have proven to be significant mainly at the aggregate level. As for the individual level, it has been argued... more
The recent success of right-wing populist parties (RPPs) in Europe has given rise to different explanations. Economic factors have proven to be significant mainly at the aggregate level. As for the individual level, it has been argued that the so-called ‘losers of globalization’ – the less educated and less skilled, profiles with higher job insecurity – are more likely to support RPPs. Nevertheless, RPPs perform strikingly well in countries less affected by the Great Recession, gathering high levels of support among profiles not considered the losers of globalization. Moreover, the effect of age on support for RPPs is not clear, as, on the one hand, the young are better educated and skilled, but, on the other, they suffered the effects of the economic crisis more. To address this puzzle, we focus on the impact of unemployment and employment insecurity among the youth on voting for RPPs in 17 European countries. We find that youth support for RPPs can be explained by the precariousness of the youth labour market.
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El sistema electoral local, regulado primero en Ley 39/1978 y luego en la Ley Orgá- nica 5/1985, del Régimen Electoral General (LOREG) ha permanecido relativamente estable a lo largo de cuarenta años de democracia local. Bajo este... more
El sistema electoral local, regulado primero en Ley 39/1978 y luego en la Ley Orgá- nica 5/1985, del Régimen Electoral General (LOREG) ha permanecido relativamente estable a lo largo de cuarenta años de democracia local. Bajo este sistema electoral se han ido produciendo diferentes resultados electorales. Progresivamente se ha ido reduciendo la presencia de candidatos independientes y de partidos locales, a favor de los grandes partidos nacionales o regionales. Sin embargo, en las elecciones de 2015, el sistema electoral propor- cional ha trasladado a los plenos municipales una mayor diversidad de opciones electorales. Esta mayor diversidad política del pleno municipal no ha producido por sí mayor ines- tabilidad en el gobierno municipal. Varias son las reglas del régimen local, contenidas en parte en la Ley 7/1985, reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local (LBRL) y en parte en la LOREG, que limitan la posible inestabilidad del gobierno local cuando los plenos son muy plurales: la distribución de competencias entre el pleno y los órganos ejecutivos municipales (alcaldía y junta de gobierno); la intrascendencia de las reservas de ley para la articulación interna del poder local; la regulación restrictiva de las mociones de censura; las mociones de censura constructivas; y el régimen restrictivo de los concejales no adscritos.
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El presente capítulo compara las sociedades polaca y española, centrándose en las diferencias existentes en la religiosidad, en la identidad nacional y en las actitudes xenófobas. Empieza por un breve repaso de algunas similitudes entre... more
El presente capítulo compara las sociedades polaca y española, centrándose en las diferencias existentes en la religiosidad, en la identidad nacional y en las actitudes xenófobas. Empieza por un breve repaso de algunas similitudes entre ambos países. Posteriormente, utilizando datos de diversas encuestas de opinión pública, muestra que Polonia se sitúa en el lado “cerrado” en el eje que distingue entre las sociedades abiertas y cerradas, mientras que España se postula como una de las sociedades más abiertas y tolerantes de Europa. El argumento que sigue es que esta distinción es una de las razones por las que el populismo de derecha (radical) ha encontrado un caldo de cultivo especialmente propicio en Polonia. El éxito de un partido nacionalista y populista, a su vez, ha llevado al país a la deriva autoritaria. Aunque España ya no es inmune a este tipo de fuerzas políticas, parece que el declive democrático de estas dimensiones es menos factible en el contexto de las democracias más consolidadas de Europa Occidental.
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El presente informe sobre políticas municipales de empleo y desarrollo local aborda un análisis comparado de las estrategias con que los ayuntamientos madrileños de mayor población intervienen en este sector de actividad gubernamental. Se... more
El presente informe sobre políticas municipales de empleo y desarrollo local aborda un análisis comparado de las estrategias con que los ayuntamientos madrileños de mayor población intervienen en este sector de actividad gubernamental. Se distribuye en tres partes. En la primera se definen y clasifican las medidas públicas existentes en este sector, así como su evolución y rendimiento, y se aborda la cuestión de la posición de los ayuntamientos en este ámbito de actuación pública. La segunda parte se aproxima al sector a través de un análisis de corte cuantitativo, estudiando las características sociodemográficas del desempleo en los municipios analizados y las relaciones entre niveles de renta, niveles de desempleo y presupuestos municipales dedicados a políticas de empleo y desarrollo. La tercera sección acomete el examen pormenorizado
de la gestión de políticas de empleo en los municipios seleccionados.
A partir de datos propios procedentes de entrevistas en profundidad a
responsables municipales en esta política y de cuestionarios, se investigan las prioridades, evolución, actuaciones, organización municipal, relaciones con otros actores y balance de la implementación de estas políticas.
El informe concluye apuntando a las principales debilidades que enfrentan
los ayuntamientos en el desarrollo de esta política y que se refieren a, por
un lado, la débil posición formal de los ayuntamientos en esta área de política pública junto con las ineficiencias en la coordinación con el gobierno regional que de ello se deriva y, por otro lado, a la necesidad de reforzar los instrumentos de evaluación integral de la política que permita retroalimentar eficientemente el diseño de nuevos programas.
de la gestión de políticas de empleo en los municipios seleccionados.
A partir de datos propios procedentes de entrevistas en profundidad a
responsables municipales en esta política y de cuestionarios, se investigan las prioridades, evolución, actuaciones, organización municipal, relaciones con otros actores y balance de la implementación de estas políticas.
El informe concluye apuntando a las principales debilidades que enfrentan
los ayuntamientos en el desarrollo de esta política y que se refieren a, por
un lado, la débil posición formal de los ayuntamientos en esta área de política pública junto con las ineficiencias en la coordinación con el gobierno regional que de ello se deriva y, por otro lado, a la necesidad de reforzar los instrumentos de evaluación integral de la política que permita retroalimentar eficientemente el diseño de nuevos programas.
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El Informe 2017 de la Colección de Estudios de Políticas Públicas Locales en la Comunidad de Madrid analiza la acción pública de los ayuntamientos de mayor población de la región. En esta edición se aborda la acción municipal desde un... more
El Informe 2017 de la Colección de Estudios de Políticas Públicas Locales en la Comunidad de Madrid analiza la acción pública de los ayuntamientos de mayor población de la región. En esta edición se aborda la acción municipal desde un enfoque transversal, comparando la planificación presupuestaria de los ayuntamientos bajo estudio, las estructuras de personal y las formas de gestión en la provisión de servicios públicos. El estudio de los presupuestos municipales compara niveles de gasto por capítulos y por políticas, así como su evolución a lo largo de los años. El análisis basado en los documentos de Relación de Puestos de Trabajo permite observar la conformación de las plantillas, además de la existencia de diversidad en estrategias locales de empleo público y el grado de autonomía local en temas organizativos. Finalmente, la gestión de los servicios públicos se explora desde las características de las distintas formas de gestión de los servicios públicos locales y, a partir del examen de las diferencias entre la gestión directa e indirecta, permite desarrollar un marco analítico orientado fundamentalmente al estudio comparado entre municipios y políticas.
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Electoral turnout rates in most of the Central and Eastern European countries are low and in Poland they are extremely low. Scholars usually try to explain them either by institutional factors or individual characteristics that decrease... more
Electoral turnout rates in most of the Central and Eastern European countries are low and in Poland they are extremely low. Scholars usually try to explain them either by institutional factors or individual characteristics that decrease or foster levels of political participation. I argue that there are institutional constraints that prevent people from casting a ballot, but these contextual factors that increase the costs of voting affect citizens in an unequal way. This study provides a basis to build on for a future cross-level approach towards assessing turnout in CEE countries. By using data from all modules of CSES, Comparative Political Data Set III and Democracy Barometer, I explore the possible explanations of low turnout in Poland and CEE countries by evaluating the influence of both individual and institutional level variables, linking this findings with some insight on communist legacies and their impact on democratic institutions.