Assistant Professor in the Politics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz
About
Sara Niedzwiecki is assistant professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studies the process through which social policies are formed and implemented as well as the territorial structure of government in Latin America. She is the author of Uneven Social Policies: The Politics of Subnational Variation in Latin America (2018, Cambridge University Press) and co-author of Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her work has also been published in Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, Latin American Politics and Society, Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Politics in Latin America, Regional and Federal Studies, PS: Political Science and Politics, International Political Science Review, Saúde Coletiva, and Revista de Ciencia Política.
Current Work:
Sara Niedzwiecki studies the role of politics in improving living conditions in Latin America and beyond. Her research revolves around two crucial questions within comparative politics. First, what are the political processes through which social policies are formed and implemented? Second, what are the characteristics and consequences of decentralization? To answer these questions, her first co-authored book studies the authority of provinces in countries around the world. In her second book, which was the product of Niedzwiecki’s dissertation research at the UNC – Chapel Hill, she explores the political factors that shape the implementation of social policies in decentralized countries. This question is crucial because only well-implemented policies can decrease poverty and produce healthier populations. During 2020-2021 academic year, Niedzwiecki is a fellow at the Kellogg Institute where she is working on her third book on immigration and the welfare state in Latin America.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Latin America; social policy; subnational politics; immigration; Argentina
