My main area of research is comparative politics. In recent years, I have been studying contemporary populist forces in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. I am particularly interested in showing that populist actors are raising legitimate questions about the current state of democracy, even if their proposed solutions tend to be more controversial than helpful. I have developed this research agenda on populism both individually and in collaboration with colleagues working in different parts of the world. At the same time, I am also working on other topics such as democratic self-defense, far-right forces in Latin America, the transformation of mainstream right-wing forces, and anti-feminism. Below, I provide a brief overview of the issues I am currently addressing.
Since 2010, the world has witnessed a sustained wave of autocratization and democratic backsliding, with no clear end in sight. Although there is an ongoing scholarly debate about the causes of this trend, comparatively little attention has been paid to strategies for resisting it. To address this gap, I am currently collaborating with Anthoula Malkopoulou (Uppsala University) and Bastiaan Rijpkema (Leiden University) on the Oxford Handbook of Democratic Self-Defense. This project seeks to shift the focus from diagnosing the problem to identifying and debating possible solutions. In other words, we propose going beyond analyses of the extent and location of democratic erosion to explore how democratic regimes and actors can effectively protect themselves. Despite growing interest in democratic resilience and resistance to various forms of illiberalism, there have been surprisingly few academic forums that foster interdisciplinary dialogue on this critical issue. This project brings together contributions from scholars in political theory, comparative politics, and law to collectively examine the implications of democratic responses to autocratization.
Until fairly recently, the far right was viewed in Latin America as a distant phenomenon—something that happened in Europe. However, with the rise of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency in Brazil in 2018, it became evident that the far right is now very much present in the Latin American region. The election of Javier Milei in Argentina in 2023 and the re-election of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador in 2024 further reinforce this point. Yet, we still lack comparative studies on the various far-right forces gaining ground across Latin America. To address this deficit, I co-founded the Laboratory for the Study of the Far Right (ultra-lab) with several colleagues. This initiative has allowed us to analyze both the "demand" and the "supply" sides of far-right politics. On the one hand, we are conducting surveys to understand who supports and who opposes the far right in different Latin American countries. On the other hand, we are analyzing the ideas promoted by far-right political actors in the region to identify similarities and differences among them and in comparison to their counterparts in Europe and the United States. Some of our findings have been published by the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and we co-authored a study with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation analyzing support and opposition to the far right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
While it is true that Chile's right-wing parties have been electorally successful since the transition to democracy, there has been little scholarly attention devoted to them. In previous research, I have explored how mainstream right-wing parties in Chile have undergone a process of programmatic moderation, which has left a segment of voters and leaders politically orphaned. This dynamic largely explains the rise of the populist radical right, currently led by José Antonio Kast and the "Republican Party." Using various methodologies, I seek to understand not only the ideas developed by the populist radical right but also the motivations behind public support and rejection of this political force. Empirical data reveals that large segments of the Chilean public reject the far right, and that supporters of the radical populist right in Chile closely resemble their Western European counterparts. In a co-authored article with Camila Díaz and Lisa Zanotti, we show that the ideas promoted by Kast and the Republican Party are highly aligned with the global platform of the radical populist right. Additionally, with Rocío Salas-Lewin and Lisa Zanotti, we published an article examining the electoral support and opposition to the radical populist right in Chile.
Comparative evidence shows that the rise of far-right forces puts mainstream right-wing parties in a difficult position. These parties face a tension between, on the one hand, continuing to appeal to moderate voters—many of whom hold liberal and progressive values associated with the "silent revolution"—and, on the other hand, attracting voters who sympathize with the authoritarian and illiberal ideas linked to the "silent counter-revolution" pursued by the radical populist right. Together with my colleague Tim Bale, we co-edited a book on this topic focusing on Western Europe, published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. More recently, I have continued to explore this theme with support from the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), and I am interested in conducting comparative research that includes the situation of mainstream right-wing parties in Latin America. One example is a publication co-authored with Ariel Becerra, in which we analyze who identifies with the different right-wing factions currently present in Chile.
There has been a recent surge in research aiming to measure the demand for populism—that is, survey-based studies seeking to identify which types of individuals are more likely to express populist attitudes. Together with my colleague Steven van Hauwaert, we are analyzing data from several countries in Europe and Latin America to determine whether citizens with high levels of populism share similar or different socioeconomic and sociopolitical profiles. We are particularly interested in exploring whether people who sympathize with populist ideas have a distinct vision of democracy. To that end, we are developing a research project that empirically examines the relationship between populist attitudes and conceptions of democracy. Our working hypothesis is that citizens who sympathize with populism tend to prefer an illiberal model of democracy, suggesting that the conditions necessary for liberal democracy to function properly may be underdeveloped in significant segments of the electorate. Empirical data collected in Western Europe supports this thesis. I have also pursued this line of research with my colleague Paul Taggart, with whom I co-edited a special issue on populism and democracy for the journal PS: Political Science & Politics.
The rise of the far right often goes hand in hand with the spread of negative discourses about feminism. In fact, several studies suggest that part of the far right’s agenda involves politicizing antifeminism—something particularly evident in Latin America. However, we still lack robust empirical evidence about how many people and which types of citizens are more likely to hold antifeminist views. To explore this topic, I have been collecting survey data aimed at measuring antifeminist attitudes among the general public. Alongside Catherine Reyes-Housholder (PUC Chile) and Rocío Salas-Lewin (Cornell University), I am working on an article that analyzes this issue in the Chilean context. Additionally, with Tomás Arriaza Moreno (PUC Chile) and Talita Tanscheit (PUC Rio), we published a report for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation that examines antifeminist attitudes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, and Mexico.