Welcome! I am a PhD candidate in the Government Department at Cornell University. My work centers on the intersection between political behavior and party politics with a special focus on the role of social movements in shaping political parties.
In my dissertation I explore why contemporary European parties with movement roots have neither followed the lead of older movement parties like the Social Democrats by adopting an electoral-professional party model, nor retained their organizational connections to movement organizations. I argue that organizational separation from parties allows movement organizations to maximize their public support and influence on government policy. Parties cannot, however, break with their movement origins programmatically, because they rely on issue voters who are disappointed with the dominant electoral-professional party models. Thus movement parties counterbalance the trend towards catch-all and cartel parties and thereby (re-)integrate disaffected citizens into the democratic process. This equilibrium only breaks down when mainstream parties weaken and thus allow movement parties a path to major party status, as illustrated by recent developments in Southern Europe.
Before coming to Cornell I completed a M.A. degree in political science at the University of Bremen in Germany. I have conducted research in Sweden and Germany, supported by a Luigi Einaudi Fellowship for Dissertation Research, and studied at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
In my dissertation I explore why contemporary European parties with movement roots have neither followed the lead of older movement parties like the Social Democrats by adopting an electoral-professional party model, nor retained their organizational connections to movement organizations. I argue that organizational separation from parties allows movement organizations to maximize their public support and influence on government policy. Parties cannot, however, break with their movement origins programmatically, because they rely on issue voters who are disappointed with the dominant electoral-professional party models. Thus movement parties counterbalance the trend towards catch-all and cartel parties and thereby (re-)integrate disaffected citizens into the democratic process. This equilibrium only breaks down when mainstream parties weaken and thus allow movement parties a path to major party status, as illustrated by recent developments in Southern Europe.
Before coming to Cornell I completed a M.A. degree in political science at the University of Bremen in Germany. I have conducted research in Sweden and Germany, supported by a Luigi Einaudi Fellowship for Dissertation Research, and studied at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
