I am Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston University. I received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009. My current research focuses on campaigns, parties, and political communication in Latin America. I have also done work on methodology and concept analysis, and on the impact of the Internet in developing countries and authoritarian regimes. My dissertation, "Varieties of Electioneering: Presidential Campaigns in Latin America," develops a theory of success contagion to explain why the prevailing patterns of campaign strategy in Chile, Brazil, and Peru have evolved in fundamentally different directions since their transitions to democracy. An abstract is available online; contact me for the manuscript. Curriculum Vitae Course syllabi and resources: Campaigns and Elections Around the World (Notre Dame, Spring 2010) Quantitative Analysis in Political Research (U.C. Berkeley, Spring 2009)

Research, Papers, and Publications

• "Controlling the Airwaves: Incumbency Advantage and Community Radio in Brazil" (with F. Daniel Hidalgo). Working paper. Online appendix.


• "Going Positive or Going Plausible? Campaign Advertising Effects in Chile's 1988 Plebiscite." Working paper. Online appendix.


• "Varieties of Electioneering: Success Contagion and Presidential Campaigns in Latin America." World Politics 62, no. 4 (October 2010, forthcoming).


• "Television and Neopopulism in Latin America: Media Effects in Brazil and Peru." Latin American Research Review 40, no. 2 (June 2005).


• "Chile: Promoting the Personal Connection--The Internet and Presidential Election Campaigns." In Stephen Ward, Diana Owen, Richard Davis, and David Taras, eds., Making a Difference: A Comparative View of the Role of the Internet in Election Politics. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008.

• "Neoliberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy to Anti-Liberal Slogan" (with Jordan Gans-Morse). Studies in Comparative International Development 44, no. 2 (Summer 2009).


• "Conceptualizing Continuity and Change: The Composite-Standard Model of Path Dependence." Journal of Theoretical Politics 19, no. 1 (January 2007).
  


• Review of Politics in Time, by Paul Pierson. Journal of Politics 70, no. 1 (January 2008). Click here for the entire qualitative methods book review symposium from this issue.

• The Digital Revolution and International Development (edited with Thad Dunning). A special issue of Studies in Comparative International Development, 40, no. 2 (Summer 2005).
  • Taylor Boas and Thad Dunning, "Classic Questions, New Context: Development in an Era of Bits and Bytes" (pp. 3-8).
  • Taylor Boas, Thad Dunning, and Jennifer Bussell, "Will the Digital Revolution Revolutionize Development? Drawing Together the Debate" (pp. 95-110).

• "Weaving the Authoritarian Web: The Control of Internet Use in Non-Democratic Regimes." In John Zysman and Abraham Newman, eds., How Revolutionary Was the Digital Revolution? National Responses, Market Transitions, and Global Technology. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books, 2006.

• "Weaving the Authoritarian Web." Current History 103, no. 677 (December 2004). A shorter and less theoretical version of the above.
  

• "Technology, Freedom, and Democracy: An Evolving Debate." APSA-CP: Newsletter of the Organized Section in Comparative Politics of the American Political Science Association 15, no. 1: 18-23 (Winter 2004).
  
  
• "Falun Gong and the Internet: Evangelism, Community, and Struggle for Survival" (with Mark R. Bell). Nova Religio 6, no. 2 (April 2003): 277-293.
  
  
• Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (with Shanthi Kalathil). Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003.
  

• "The Dictator’s Dilemma? The Internet and U.S. Policy toward Cuba." The Washington Quarterly 23, no. 3 (Summer 2000): 57-67.