I'm a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science. My dissertation, Distrusting Democrats in Latin America, studies the cultural foundations of democratic stability and quality. The study incorporates fieldwork from Chile and Argentina funded by the Ford Foundation. I plan to defend my dissertation in the Fall of 2007.

The core findings suggest distrusting democrats in the region participate in protest politics, just like the “critical citizens” often described in the literature on established democracies. But their influence on democratic quality (i.e. representation, political accountability, low levels of corruption, respect for the rule of law, an effective state) in Latin America is not likely to be mediated by electoral politics, since few political parties in the region incorporate their demands into their platforms. This does not, however, preclude the development of more direct forms of democracy. Additionally, my dissertation develops multidimensional measures of regime support and trust in parties (based on Q-sorts and cluster analysis) that better capture the clusters of regime preferences and values and beliefs about the trustworthiness of political parties.

My major field is Comparative Politics and my minor is in Methods. Research interests include Latin American Politics; Political Culture; Public Opinion; Elections, Electoral Systems, and Cross-National Voter Turnout; Democratic Institutions; and Political Economy.

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E-mail: rcarlin@email.unc.edu