Name and Surname
Alejandro Esteso Pérez
Affiliation
University of Graz
Contact email
alejandro.esteso-perez@edu.uni-graz.at
Short Biography
Alejandro Esteso Pérez is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the Centre for Southeast European Studies of the University of Graz, where he is authoring a dissertation on the territorial variations of democracy in Serbia. He earned his MA in Political Science at Malmö University, and his BA in International Relations at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid.
Alejandro’s research interests include party politics in the Western Balkans, EU enlargement, the far right, and authoritarianism in Europe. He has conducted doctoral research visits at the Universities of Fribourg and Sarajevo, and is a current recipient of the Marietta-Blau Grant, awarded by Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation. Beyond academia, Alejandro regularly contributes to European media outlets through written analyses and opinion pieces on Western Balkan political affairs and EU integration.
Research abstract
This project seeks to explore the territorial variations of democracy within States by identifying the factors that condition democracy’s varying levels of penetration across regions, towns, and municipalities. Through the comparative exploration of eight municipalities in Serbia, it examines the heterogeneous structures and practices that underpin local political dynamics, and aims to identify the variables explaining this diversity. The project expects to find that municipalities’ business and economic environments, their ethnic-national diversity, their geographical location, and their political alignment will impact their democratic health to varying degrees, providing strong insights into the manifold sub-national expressions of democracy.