Research agenda

My research is situated at the intersection of comparative/international political economy and political science. My first research focus tends more in the direction of the former, the second of the latter.

1. The crafting of state strategies to manage the domestic effects of globalization. 

A particular focus is put on states of the periphery and semi-periphery in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Situated in a complex position between domestic and foreign demands, these are under high pressure to counter adverse effects, such as international financial crises, brain drain, and climate change. 

My ongoing research scrutinizes the diverse strategies established by these states and seeks to explain how different strategies came about. It seeks to  to explain how variation in party systems and expert knowledge explain their adoption.

2. Government-expert relations and the politics of expertise

With the increasing complexity of decisionmaking in an interdependent world, governments are required to rely on experts to support their policy decisions. The role of expertise in influencing policymaking has expanded to resolve policy problems in fields such as the monetary and financial system, but also the governance of migration and pandemics. Paradoxically, this did not discontinue political debate and contestation but transformed it. 

My current investigation casts more light on the obscure politics involved in government-expert relations. It centers on the variegated political objectives that governments seek to achieve by empowering selected experts to key policymaking positions. Moreover, it compares the different types of expertise selected by governments across different countries and analyzes their impact on the substance and function of the adopted policies.