Research

My main areas of research are democratic institutions and ethnic politics, with a focus on Latin America.  In 2006 I published Democracy and the Culture of Skepticism (with Susan C. Stokes), which uses evidence from Argentina and Mexico to argue that democracy functions better when citizens are skeptical towards government, rather than unconditionally trusting.  My book on local government in Mexico, The Sources of Democratic Responsiveness in Mexico (2010),was published by the University of Notre Dame Press.  I have also published papers on ethnic violence, coup politics, and the “left turn” in Latin America.  My most recent publication is an article on democratic backsliding with Aykut Ozturk (in Perspectives on Politics).

At present I am working on a number of projects, the most significant of which is a book on local autonomy in Mexican indigenous communities, for which I earned a grant from the National Science Foundation (“The Effects of Indigenous Autonomy in Southern Mexico“).  One part of this project was published as “Subordinated Autonomy and the Political Inclusion of Women in Indigenous Mexico” (Latin American Politics & Society, 2020).