What explains nonresident citizens’ voter turnout and which effects do overseas votes generate in homeland politics? Using a multi-method strategy that encompasses 3 cross-sectional time-series... Show moreWhat explains nonresident citizens’ voter turnout and which effects do overseas votes generate in homeland politics? Using a multi-method strategy that encompasses 3 cross-sectional time-series datasets, 50 semi-structured interviews, the analysis of official documents and party manifestos, this dissertation examines nonresident citizens’ voter turnout in Latin America and Southern Europe. The results are abundant. First, the author finds that registration rules, compulsory voting, concurrent elections, voting methods, and democratic quality have a meaningful impact on nonresident citizens’ voter turnout. Second, in this dissertation, there is an in-depth understanding of the different incentives, opportunities, and constraints associated with nonresident citizens’ voter turnout, including the role of homeland authorities and de facto practices to promote and/or to organize elections abroad. Third, the author unpacks swing, interregnum, incumbency, and feedback effects from a comparative quantitative logic. Correspondingly, this study suggests that parties, homeland politicians, and policymakers seek to avoid unwanted consequences controlling or influencing the political agenda. Both a sizable nonresident population and a high number of overseas votes have a moderate but significant impact on election results, either changing or not the bargaining among party organizations to govern. Lastly, this dissertation explores three pathways to analyze non-resident citizens’ voter turnout over time. Show less
This study explores several networks of international intelligence cooperation in Latin America, stressing the lessons that can be taken from these experiences for the the global academic debate on... Show moreThis study explores several networks of international intelligence cooperation in Latin America, stressing the lessons that can be taken from these experiences for the the global academic debate on security cooperation regimes. Special attention is given to the intelligence cooperation existing in the so-called Triple Frontera or Triple Border region between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina where the author conducted fieldwork. The Triple Border case has an influence that goes beyond the territories and states that are directly affected. It involves, among many other countries and actors, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Mexico. In fact, its influence extends as far as remote African and European routes for products both licit and illicit to the most complex money laundering systems in the Middle East, China or the United States. This study aims to break with the dominant paradigms that understand intelligence cooperation as dependent on security cooperation and with the idea that intelligence as an exclusive activity of the states. Show less
This study goes beyond the analysis of the causes of the emergence of populist actors in the party system, focusing instead on those cases in which populism and its counterpart anti-populism,... Show moreThis study goes beyond the analysis of the causes of the emergence of populist actors in the party system, focusing instead on those cases in which populism and its counterpart anti-populism, translate into an ideological and discursive divide that contributes to structuring a certain party system. When populism/anti-populism emerges as a political cleavage, the factors behind parties’ political choices in general, and electoral coalition preferences in particular, can be affected. For this new cleavage to start to polarize, a change in the political opportunity structure is needed. In fact, when the political opportunity structure opens as a consequence of events external to the party system new actors may enter the system, producing a change in the dynamic of competition. Moreover, considering also the organizational density of the parties in the system, defined as the power of penetration of a given party, both in terms of intensity and reach, this dissertation can shed light on the likely duration not only of the parties but also of the cleavage. Show less
