Scholars@Duke
Pablo Beramendi

Pablo Beramendi CV

Newman Ivey White Distinguished Professor of Political Science
Political Science
pablo.beramendi@duke.edu
207 Gross Hall, Box 90204, Durham, NC 27708-0204
207 Gross Hall, Box 90204, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Principles of Political Equality and the Logic of Power

Journal article Annual Review of Political Science · January 1, 2026 At its core, democracy carries a promise of political equality that rests on rules, norms, and procedures that govern the polity to afford equal consideration and freedom from domination to every member. However, despite being widely cherished, political e ... Full text Cite

Political decentralisation and the spatial distribution of infant mortality in less developed nations

Journal article Regional Studies · January 1, 2025 This paper focuses on political decentralisation as an institutional determinant of the level and spatial distribution of infant mortality rates (IMR). At the national level, we show that political decentralisation is linked to lower IMR, but these benefit ... Full text Cite

Political equality: what is it and why does it matter?

Journal article Oxford Open Economics · July 1, 2024 Political inequality is a distinctive type of inequality, which cannot be reduced to economic or power inequalities. The article frames political equality as trying to achieve ‘equal consideration’ among members of a polity, arguing that assessing whether ... Full text Cite

The Electoral Effects of Large-Scale Infrastructure Policies: Evidence from a Rural Electrification Scheme in Brazil

Journal article Journal of Politics · April 1, 2024 This article analyzes the conditions under which major infrastructural investments generate electoral returns. It addresses when and how the constraints imposed by myopic voters under democracy can be overcome. We argue that sustained policy spillovers are ... Full text Cite

Polarization and Accountability in Covid Times

Journal article Frontiers in Political Science · January 19, 2022 We analyze the relationship between accountability and polarization in the context of the COVID crisis. We make three points. First, when voters perceive the out-party to be ideologically extreme, they are less likely to hold incumbents accountable for poo ... Full text Cite

Disparate geography and the origins of tax capacity

Journal article Review of International Organizations · January 1, 2021 We establish a conceptual and empirical link between the geographic distribution of economic endowments within a nation and long-run fiscal capacity. Economic geography informs elites’ incentives to facilitate large-scale central taxing bureaucracies. Sect ... Full text Cite

The Political Geography of the Eurocrisis

Journal article World Politics · October 1, 2020 The European Union provided a mixed response to the 2008 financial crisis. On the one hand, it refused to pursue fiscal integration through a common budget; on the other, it introduced significant transfers between countries that were designed to produce f ... Full text Cite

Democracy under high inequality: Capacity, spending, and participation

Journal article Journal of Politics · July 1, 2020 Contrary to the view that inequality reduces turnout, political participation among low-income voters is higher in democracies with high levels of inequality and intermediate levels of state capacity. We address this puzzle by analyzing the link between po ... Full text Cite

Multi-modes for Detecting Experimental Measurement Error

Journal article Political Analysis · April 1, 2020 Experiments should be designed to facilitate the detection of experimental measurement error. To this end, we advocate the implementation of identical experimental protocols employing diverse experimental modes. We suggest iterative nonparametric estimatio ... Full text Cite

Economic Geography, Political Inequality, and Public Goods in the Original 13 U.S. States

Journal article Comparative Political Studies · November 1, 2019 A large and fruitful literature has focused on the impact of colonial legacies on long-term development. Yet the mechanisms through which these legacies get transmitted over time remain ambiguous. This article analyzes the choice and effects of legislative ... Full text Cite

Intra-elite competition and long-run fiscal development

Journal article Journal of Politics · January 1, 2019 This paper exploits an original database that spans 30-plus developed and developing nations between 1870 and 2010 to perform the first empirical analysis of the relationship between historical levels of intra-elite competition and fiscal development over ... Full text Cite

Barriers to egalitarianism: Distributive tensions in Latin American federations

Journal article Latin American Research Review · January 1, 2017 Latin America’s largest federations have significantly reduced their levels of income inequality in recent years, perhaps reflecting a structural change toward egalitarianism. However, we argue that the political geography of federalism in Argentina, Brazi ... Full text Cite

Who Gives, Who Gains? Progressivity and Preferences

Journal article Comparative Political Studies · March 1, 2016 The extent to which popular support for the welfare state depends on income varies greatly across nations and policy domains. We argue and show formally that these variations—largely overlooked yet essential to understanding the politics of redistribution— ... Full text Cite

Globalization, public finance, and poverty

Journal article International Studies Review · December 1, 2015 Global economic forces might impact poverty in any number of direct ways by reducing prices, providing access to larger pools of capital, or creating and destroying jobs. Such forces might also work indirectly, that is, through their effect on labor standa ... Full text Cite

Inequality and Institutions: The Case of Economic Coordination

Journal article Annual Review of Political Science · May 11, 2014 Full text Cite

Left Parties, Poor Voters, and Electoral Participation in Advanced Industrial Societies

Journal article Comparative Political Studies · June 1, 2012 Although income inequality is an important normative issue for students of democratic politics, little is known about its effects on citizens' electoral participation. The authors develop a formal model of the incentives for left parties to mobilize lower ... Full text Cite

Diverse disparities: The politics and economics of wage, market, and disposable income inequalities

Journal article Political Research Quarterly · January 1, 2009 It is widely thought that among the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), income inequality has become more widespread over the past decades. The authors show that this image is misleading. The OECD countries remai ... Full text Cite

Inequality and the territorial fragmentation of solidarity

Journal article International Organization · October 1, 2007 A long tradition, of research has shown decentralized political structures as an important cause behind lower levels of redistribution and higher levels of inequality. This article offers an alternative interpretation of the association between, fragmented ... Full text Cite

Social democracy constrained: Indirect taxation in industrialized democracies

Journal article British Journal of Political Science · January 1, 2007 The determinants of the welfare state have received a great deal of attention in the comparative political economy literature. An analysis of the role that indirect taxation plays in the politics of advanced industrial societies is, however, missing. This ... Full text Cite

Taxing work

Journal article European Journal of Political Research · January 1, 2006 This article examines the development of tax regimes across OECD countries in the latter part of the twentieth century. It gives particular emphasis to taxes on labour income. Taxes on labour income represent a major drain on private households. They have ... Full text Cite