About

Javier Pérez Sandoval is a Kellogg Postdoctoral Research Associate in Democracy, where he works with faculty fellow Scott Mainwaring on a project examining regime outcomes in the aftermath of the Third Wave. He was previously a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg in 2023, conducting research on how subnational political dynamics shape national-level shifts towards and away from democracy.

Before joining Kellogg, Javier was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at Keble College. His research explores the political economy of regime change, subnational politics, and the design of democratic institutions, with a regional focus on Latin America—particularly Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. 

His work combines quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze regime trajectories and the historical origins of subnational democracy. He has published in leading journals such as Democratization and Perspectives on Politics, and his scholarship has been recognized with awards including the 2023 Frank Cass Prize for Best Article by a Young Scholar and the 2022 APSA William Anderson Award for Best Dissertation in Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations. He also contributes to public debates through outlets such as Animal Político and The Washington Post. Javier holds a DPhil and MPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford and is committed to advancing rigorous, theory-grounded research on how democracy unfolds across multiple territorial levels, especially in the Global South.

 

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