Politics Faculty
- Title
- Associate Professor
- Division Social Sciences Division
- Department
- Politics Department
- Affiliations Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas, Latin American & Latino Studies
- Phone 831-459-5220
- Website
- Office Location
- Merrill College Faculty Office Annex, 156
- Mail Stop Merrill College
- Mailing Address
- Politics Department Merrill Faculty Services University of California, Santa Cruz 1156 High Street S
- Santa Cruz California 95064
- Courses Politics of Social Policy, Doing Research, Latin American Politics, Latin American Social Policy
Biography, Education and Training
Sara Niedzwiecki is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is on the process through which social policies are formed and implemented as well as on the territorial structure of government in Latin America. Niedzwiecki’s book, Uneven Social Policies: The Politics of Subnational Variation in Latin America (2018, Cambridge University Press) explores the political factors that shape the implementation of social policies in decentralized countries. A second, co-authored book, Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2016), presents the Regional Authority Index for 80 OECD+, Asian, and Latin American countries from 1950 to 2010. During 2020-2021 academic year, Professor Niedzwiecki was a fellow at University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies where she worked on a new project on social policy and immigration in Latin America. Webpage: http://www.saraniedzwiecki.com/
Selected Publications
Books
- Niedzwiecki, Sara (2018). Uneven Social Policies: The Politics of Subnational Variation in Latin America, New York: Cambridge University Press (2020 Paperback)
- Hooghe, Liesbet, Gary Marks, Arjan H. Schakel, Sara Niedzwiecki, Sandra Chapman Osterkatz, Sarah Shair-Rosenfield (2016). Measuring Regional Authority: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance,Vol.I, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Refereed Articles
- Giraudy, Agustina and Sara Niedzwiecki. "Multi-level governance and subnational research: Similarities, differences, and knowledge accumulation in the study of territorial politics." Regional & Federal Studies, 2021.
- Shair-Rosenfield, Sarah, Arjan H. Schakel, Sara Niedzwiecki, Gary Marks, Liesbet Hooghe, and Sandra Chapman-Osterkatz. “Language Difference and Regional Authority.” Regional & Federal Studies, 2020.
- Niedzwiecki, Sara and Santiago Anria. "Participatory Social Policies: Diverging Patterns in Brazil and Bolivia". Latin American Politics and Society (61, no. 2, 115-137), 2019.
- Niedzwiecki, Sara, Sandra Chapman, Liesbet Hooghe, and Gary Marks. "The RAI travels to Latin America: Measuring regional authority under regime change." Regional & Federal Studies (31, no. 2, 235-260), 2018
- Freytes, Carlos and Sara Niedzwiecki. "Argentina 2017: la dinámica intertemporal de la reestructuración económica." Revista de Ciencia Política (38, no.2,125-158), 2018
- Huber, Evelyne and Sara Niedzwiecki. "Changing Systems of Social Protection in the Context of the Changing Political Economies since the 1980s." Ciência & Saúde Coletiva (23, no.7, 2085–2094), 2018
- Schakel, Arjan, Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks, Sara Niedzwiecki, Sandra Chapman and Sarah Shair-Rosenfield."Virtues and pitfalls of subnational comparison" Territory, Politics, Governance, 2018
- Stoyan, Alissandra and Sara Niedzwiecki. "Decentralization and democratic participation: The effect of subnational self-rule on voting in Latin America and the Caribbean" Electoral Studies (52, 26-35), 2018
- Niedzwiecki, Sara and Jennifer Pribble. "Social Policies and Center-Right Governments in Argentina and Chile" Latin American Politics and Society (59 no. 3, 72-97, 2017
- Niedzwiecki, Sara and David Nunnally. "Mixed-Methods Research in the Study of Welfare States" PS: Political Science and Politics (October, 1028-1031), 2017
- Niedzwiecki, Sara. "Social Policies, Attribution of Responsibility, and Political Alignments. A Subnational Analysis of Argentina and Brazil" Comparative Political Studies (49 no.4, 457-498), 2016
- Anria, Santiago and Sara Niedzwiecki. "Social Movements and Social Policy: The Bolivian Renta Dignidad" Studies in Comparative International Development (51 no.3, 308-327), 2016
- Stoyan, Alissandra, Sara Niedzwiecki, Jana Morgan, Jonathan Hartlyn, and Rosario Espinal. "Trust in Government Institutions: The Effects of Performance and Participation in the Dominican Republic and Haiti" International Political Science Review (37 no.1, 18-35), 2016
- Niedzwiecki, Sara. "Social Policy Commitment in South America. The Effect of Organized Labor on Social Spending from 1980 to 2010" Journal of Politics in Latin America (7, no. 2, 3-43), 2015.
- Niedzwiecki, Sara. "The Effect of Organized Civil Society on Social Policy Reform. Pension and Health Reforms in Argentina and Brazil (1988-2008)" Latin American Politics and Society, (56, no. 4, 22-48) 2014