Professor Pasotti's research explores the dynamics of preference formation and change. Her research in comparative urban politics focuses on institutional change, the transformation of patronage politics and representation. It resulted in a book titled Political Branding in Cities: The Decline of Machine Politics in Bogotá, Naples and Chicago (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, Cambridge University Press 2009).

Professor Pasotti has been a Public Policy fellow at Columbia University, a German Marshall Fund of the United States fellow, and a post-doctoral fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University and a visiting fellow at the European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy.

Professor Pasotti's research interests include: comparative urban politics, European politics, democracy & democratization, public policy, political economy. She teaches courses on democracy, democratic transition, European politics and methodology.

Political Branding in Cities: the Decline of Machine Politics in Bogotá, Naples and Chicago (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2009)

“Sorting through the Trash: The Waste Management Crisis in Southern Italy” ” in South European Society & Politics, forthcoming in Vol.14, 2010

“Machine Politics” in The Encyclopedia of Political Science, ed. George Kurian (CQ Press, Washington, forthcoming 2010)

"A story foretold of a toxic mix in Campania" in Italian Politics 2008: Governing Fears, eds. G. Baldini & A. Cento Bull (Berghan, New York, forthcoming 2010)

“Cronaca annunciata di una miscela esplosiva in Campania” in Politica in Italia. I fatti dell'anno e le interpretazioni, eds. G. Baldini & A. Cento Bull (Mulino, Bologna, 2009) pp. 281-301

“Institutional overshooting in Italian urban politics” in South European Society & Politics Vol.12:2, June 2007, 183-201

“Review of Samuels’ Machiavelli’s Children” in Modern Italy Vol.12:3, October 2007.

"The State of Public Opinion in Italy" in John Geer, ed., Public Opinion and Polling around the World: a Historical Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004) p.627-633.