Students on the Market

The following Ph.D. candidates are on the job market for the 2012-2013 year:

Margarita Corral

• margarita.corral@vanderbilt.edu
• Curriculum Vitae
• Major Field of Study: Comparative Politics, American Politics, Methods
• Dissertation Title: Uneven Representation? Analysis of Democratic Responsiveness in Latin America
• Dissertation Defense Date: Spring 2013

• Dissertation Abstract: To what extent do disparities in material resources translate into inequalities in political representation in Latin America, and what factors exacerbate or ameliorate such divides? My dissertation analyzes differences in the degree to which legislators represent the policy preferences of poor versus wealthy constituents across Latin America and assesses the degree to which certain institutional or cultural features affect that relationship. I develop and test the argument that marginalized citizens have greater opportunities to be represented in electoral systems in which the rules of the game incentivize close relationships between citizens and their representatives. At the same time, I consider the effects that an active and participatory culture has on representation. The data used for the project are comparative mass and elite survey data from Latin America combined with case-specific data collected through fieldwork in Bolivia.
• Advisor: Elizabeth J. Zechmeister