I am a PhD candidate in
Political Science at Yale University with
research interests in comparative politics, political economy, Latin
American
politics, deliberative democracy, experimental social science, and
formal/quantitative methods.
My research focuses on the
impact of institutional design on the
relationship between citizens and politicians to better understand
issues of
accountability, governance and representation.
My dissertation investigates
deliberative and participatory institutional
design. I use a combination of experimental and observational analysis
to elucidate
the impact of these processes on preference formation and urban
politics.
In the observational study I
exploit the large diffusion of Participatory
Budgeting in Brazil during the last twenty years to show that
participatory
decision making processes can be effectively used to consolidate and
expand the
political support of the city executive. I draw on a large-N analysis
and a
nested case study design (four Brazilian cities) to corroborate the
results.
Experimentally I identify a
specific channel that can be used to
manipulate any deliberative and participatory discussion through the
influence
of moderators. Additional ongoing projects aim to construct a new
generation of
deliberative processes that are more resilient to this type of
manipulation and
other framing effects.
I also have an
ongoing project,
that goes back to my PhD dissertation in economics (Bologna University
2006),
on the effect of institutions and norms on candidate behavior during the
electoral
campaign. The experimental design I first implemented to study candidate
behavior in the Italian election of 2006 is being replicated
cross-nationally (Italy
2008, Brazil 2008, US 2008, Brazil 2010) with the objective of
understanding
the influence of different electoral environments, party discipline and
norms
on candidates behavior.