Vincent Mauro is a WCED Postdoctoral Fellow for 2023-2025. He studies comparative politics, and in particular the politics of inequality and redistribution in democracies. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University in 2023.
His book project argues that democracy can certainly spark an impetus for redistribution, but representation – particularly in the developing world – is far from given, and redistributive outcomes across democracies are highly dependent on the development of party systems. In Latin America and across much of the democratic world, broader patterns of social reform, redistribution, and levels of inequality are highly contingent on both the structure and institutionalization of party systems. Utilizing analysis on a variety of income data, as well as two longitudinal cases of Brazil and Colombia based on extensive archival work, he finds that countries with stable multi-party systems are more likely to redistribute income, as well as possess lower levels of inequality, than inchoate counterparts. Two-party systems are unlikely to redistribute income to any significant degree, while hegemonic party systems may usher in transformative waves of redistribution in their formative years, but inequality is likely to persist or increase the longer any given hegemon remains in power.
As a WCED fellow, Vincent will complete his book manuscript in preparation for submission to a university press. He will also work on a number of projects related to the rise of redistributive threats and democratic breakdown, the political behavior of economic elites, and oligarchy. His work has been published in Comparative Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and Latin American Research Review. Read more at vincentrinomauro.com.
Education
- Ph.D., Government, Cornell University
- M.A., Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
- B.A., Political Science, McGill University
Awards and Honors
- SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- Amit Bhatia Global PhD Research Grant, Mario Einaudi Center, Cornell University
- Kohut Fellowship, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Cornell University
- Einaudi-SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, Cornell University
