Welcome! I am a Doctoral Researcher in the Social and Political Sciences Department of the European University Institute (Firenze). This Fall, I’m visiting Yale University—feel free to reach out if you’d like to grab a coffee!
I study the emergence and development of political mobilization in 19th and 20th century Europe, focusing on how this is influenced by various social, political, and economic institutions, including political violence, religion, and repression.
Last year I led the Research Analytics Unit and co-organized the Comparative Politics Seminar Series at the EUI. Previously, I worked as a Research Assistant at the Institutions and Political Economy Research Group - IPERG (University of Barcelona).
Work in progress
Ne parlons pas de l’Affair Dreyfus: Antisemitic riots and polarization in Fin de Siècle France (with Simon Hix)
[Draft]
[Abstract]
There is mixed evidence on whether politically-motivated riots lead to more support for or a backlash against the political side perpetrating the violence. While most recent literature has focused on contemporary leftwing riots, and the role of parties in shaping public reactions, we look at rightwing riots in late 19th century France, before mass parties. We use a combination of historical municipal-level election data and newly collected information on the location of antisemitic riots in early 1898, following the publication of Émile Zola’s J’Accuse in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair. Using a difference-in-differences design – comparing municipalities where riots occurred to those were riots did not – we show that the riots caused a decline in support in the 1898 elections for rightwing candidates. This might at first seem like a backlash against the political positions of the rioters. However, we also find an increase in support for leftwing candidates who were endorsed by La Libre Parole, a popular antisemitic newspaper that mainly endorsed candidates on the right. These results contribute valuable insights into understanding the consequences of political violence, suggesting that riots against an ethnic minority can have significant electoral implications, both for and against the side supporting the riots, and this effect already existed in the early years of democratic politics.
Anglicans, Dissenters and Electoral Behavior in 19th century Great Britain (with Carles Boix and Guillem Riambau)
[Abstract]
This paper examines the religious origins of political parties in Great Britain. To that avail, we digitize all 19th century censuses at the most micro level (Parish level). We merge these datasets to all electoral results in the 19th century and to the March 30, 1851, Religious Census. The latter is the only census in UK’s history to tally attendances for every single church and chapel in all of England and Wales. Our results indicate that support for Tories (Whigs) was significantly stronger where the Anglican Church (New Dissent) was stronger. These results are robust to the inclusion of various sociodemographic controls, suggesting that religion had an influence on party support over and above social class or economic interest.
Cuffs: Targeted Repression and Compliance under Autocracy (with Lorenzo Vicari and Andrea Xamo)
[Abstract]
In this two-fold project, we leverage granular archival sources on fascist Italy to inquire how incoming autocrats take hold of the administrative state. Then, we investigate the impact of state repression on electoral compliance and military mobilisation.
Other work
Temporary Disenfranchisement Revisited: A Report from the 2023 Montréal Replication Games on the Robustness of Recent Findings in the APSR (with Joris Frese, Alexandros Christos Gkotinakos, and Matthew Hepplewhite), I4R Discussion Paper Series, No. 87, Institute for Replication (I4R), s.l.
[Paper] [Repository]
