Dr Rubén Ruiz-Rufino is a Reader in Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Economy. His research deals with measuring the functioning of political institutions, the effect of political representation in regime stability and the relationship between globalisation and political change. Rubén holds a PhD from the Juan March Institute and an MSc in Social and Political Theory from the University of Edinburgh.

Before joining the department, he held several postdoctoral positions. Between 2007 and 2008, he was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence; from 2008 to 2011 he was a Juan de la Cierva Fellow at the Institute of Politics and Public Goods (IPP-CSIC) in Madrid, and from 2011 to 2013 he was a García Pelayo Fellow at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies (CEPC) also in Madrid.

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Office hours

Office hours are by appointment and on selected days only. To see availability and to book an appointment please visit: https://rubenruizrufino.youcanbook.me/

Research

Rubén’s research examines the institutional and economic foundations of political representation across both democratising and industrialised democracies. His work combines quantitative and quasi-experimental methods to uncover the drivers explaining the exercise of political representation.

He pursues two interconnected research agendas:

• Causes and consequences of political representation
  This broad agenda explores how heterogenous preferences affect the exercise of political representation. Under this agenda, Rubén investigates the relationship between accommodating ethnic minorities and political stability; conditions that facilitate fraud and electoral harassment; determinants of electoral violence, or the consequences of international electoral monitoring on political competition.
• Economic shocks and Political Change in Advanced Democracies
  Rubén’s second agenda focuses on how global economic pressures reshape political competition. He analyses the political consequences of financial bailouts, austerity measures, and economic adjustment programmes, with particular attention to their effects on citizen attitudes, party systems, and democratic legitimacy.

Across both agendas, Rubén is committed to methodological rigour and policy relevance, employing causal inference techniques and large-scale data integration to illuminate the evolving dynamics of political representation.

PhD Supervision

Rubén is interested in supervising students focusing on various questions related to political institutions, political representation and regime stability using quantitative, quasi-experimental and qualitative methods. The use of formal modelling is also welcome. Rubén is interested in supervising projects on questions related to:

• Institutional drivers of democratic backsliding.
• Socioeconomic determinants of exclusionary politics.
• Economic crises and political change.
• The electoral consequences of globalisation.
• The collapse of establishment parties in industrialised democracies.
• Electoral violence and political stability.
• Drivers and political consequences of electoral fraud.
• Determinants and consequences of international electoral monitoring.