Research

My research examines decentralization and federalism, affective polarization, and intergovernmental relations. I adopt a comparative perspective and employ quantitative methods to study the interaction between political institutions and electoral behavior. My current work follows three research lines.

Research line 1

AI-GOV: Artificial intelligence, accountability and multilevel governance

I study the impact of artificial intelligence on multilevel governance and democratic accountability.

Project: AI-GOV (PID2025-174631NB-I00), 2026–2029, funded by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI).

Research line 2

Affective polarization and democracy

Territorial affective polarization

With Amuitz Garmendia, we explore territorial affective polarization from a comparative perspective in six countries: Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Territorial Affective Polarization: Concept, Prevalence, and Impact (with A. Garmendia), in progress

Polarization and cooperation

With Ignacio Jurado and Albert Falcó, we run large-scale behavioral experiments in Spain, Brazil and the United States to test whether affective polarization weakens everyday cooperation. People help less, and with lower quality, when the beneficiary backs their most disliked party. Out-group animosity matters more than in-group affection, personal rewards raise cooperation more than public-good incentives, and political tasks reduce cooperation. Polarization spills over even into minimal, impersonal cooperation.

Partisan animosity and cooperation: A Behavioral Experiment (with I. Jurado and A. Falcó), in progress

I am a collaborator in CONSENT, which studies why electoral losers accept being governed by the winners, and when that acceptance breaks down, using surveys, experiments and qualitative methods across more than 20 democracies. CONSENT is an ERC Consolidator Grant led by Ignacio Jurado at IPP-CSIC (grant agreement No. 101170551).

Losers’ Consent: Foundations, Causes, and Consequences of an Elusive Concept (with I. Jurado), Annual Review of Political Science, in progress

Research line 3

The political impact of crises

With Amuitz Garmendia, we study how crises and disasters shape citizens’ trust, their views on who should hold power, and territorial divides.

Part of this research was funded by FEDCRISIS, Federalism Under Challenge: Crisis, Polarization and Populism (Spanish National Research Agency, PID2021-128287NB-I00), with Amuitz Garmendia (UC3M). It was also funded by the Fundación Ramón Areces through a Visiting Fellowship at the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford (academic year 2025–2026).

Papers

Disaster in a Distrustful Democracy: Public Reactions to the DANA Crisis in Spain (with A. Garmendia), in progress

How Disaster Divides and Unites along Territorial Lines (with A. Garmendia), in progress