Giovanni Capoccia

MA Laurea Rome I, PhD EUI Florence

AFFILIATION

Government and Politics Network

College

Corpus Christi College

Students

website

Giovanni Capoccia's personal webpage

giovanni.capoccia@politics.ox.ac.uk

phone

(01865) 276752

Research

My research focuses on democracy and democratization, democratic backsliding, political institutions, political extremism, and European politics.

A major theme of my research is the analysis of the causes and consequences of the strategies used by democratic governments to control extremist dissent. My work on democratic crises in inter-war Europe has been published in several journals and a research monograph entitled Defending Democracy (Johns Hopkins University Press 2005, paperback 2007), which received the APSA Award for the Best Book in European Politics.

A second theme of my research is democratization. I have co-edited the collection The Historical Turn in Democratization Studies, published as a double special issue of Comparative Political Studies in 2010. The volume proposes a new research agenda for the study of democratization in Europe and elsewhere, focused on the dynamics of institutional change.

Finally, I have recently completed a project on the impact of democratic attitudes of different transitional justice policies, which focuses on the historical case of West Germany after 1945. The results have been published in Comparative Political Studies and in Comparative Politics (forthcoming).

This and other work has earned several other publication prizes, including the Sage Award for the Best Paper in Comparative Politics; the Sage Award for the Best Paper in Qualitative Methods; the Alexander George Award for the Best Article Developing and Applying Qualitative and Multiple Methods; the Award for the Best Paper in Comparative Democratization; and the Mary Parker Follett Award for the Best Article in Politics and History, all from the American Political Science Association.

I have held a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship and a Leverhume Trust Major Research Fellowship, as well as visiting positions in several academic institutions including the University of Heidelberg, the University of California at Berkeley, the Max-Planck-Institute in Comparative Law (Heidelberg), the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard, where I was the Rita E. Hauser Fellow.

I am currently working on two projects. One project, in collaboration with Prof. Isabela Mares (Yale), analyzes how liberal democracies can counter backsliding. We held project conferences both at Oxford and Yale, and plan to finalize a collective volume soon. A second project is a research monograph on how postwar Western European democracies have restricted the extreme right.

I welcome inquiries from potential graduate students interested in pursuing MPhil or doctoral projects on democratization, political extremism in democracies, democratic backsliding, and transitional justice, in particular in the context of European political development.

View Giovanni Capoccia's personal webpage.

Research interests

Constitutions, Institutions and Governments, Elections and electoral politics, Comparative Politics and Government, Democracy and Democratisation, Historical approaches to Political Analysis.

Media

Democracy and political extremism
Democratic crises and democratic backsliding
European Politics

Teaching

Graduate

Case Study Research (graduate seminar) (2007-present)

Research Design in Comparative Politics (graduate lectures) (2007-)

Comparative Government (M.Phil. in Comparative Government-- 2003-current)

Comparative Methodology (graduate lectures) (2002-2005)

Comparative European Politics (M.Phil. in European Politics and Society) (2001-2003)

Undergraduate

Lectures, Party systems and coalition-making in Western Europe (Paper 206: The Politics and Government of Western Europe).

Department Administrative Roles

Course provider, The Politics and Government of Western Europe (2002-2006), Comparative Government (2012-2014)

Graduate Examiners’ Board, 2002-2005; 2011-2014

Director of Research, 2007-2011

Chair of Graduate Examiners, 2013-2014

Director, MPhil in Comparative Government, 2017-2019

Convenor, Comparative Politics Research Network, 2020-2022

Publications

Journal Articles

2023

Capoccia, G. and Pop-Eleches, G. (2023) “Trying perpetrators: denazification trials and support for democracy in West Germany”, Comparative Politics, 56(2), pp. 197–218.

Available at https://doi.org/10.5129/001041523X16872241826683

2019

Capoccia, G. and Pop-Eleches, G. (2019) “Democracy and retribution: Transitional justice and regime support in postwar West Germany”, Comparative Political Studies, 53(3-4), pp. 399–433.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414019852704

2016

Capoccia, G. (2016) “When do institutions ’bite’? Historical institutionalism and the politics of institutional change”, Comparative Political Studies [Preprint].

2015

Capoccia, G. (2015) “A discussion of Alexander S. Kirschner’s A Theory of Militant Democracy: The Ethics of Combatting Political Extremism”, Perspectives on Politics, 13(3), pp. 796–797.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592715002200

2014

Ahmed, A. and Capoccia, G. (2014) “The Study of Democratization and the Arab Spring*”, Middle East Law and Governance, 6(1), pp. 1–31.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1163/18763375-00601002

2013

Capoccia, G. (2013) “Militant Democracy: The Institutional Bases of Democratic Self-Preservation”, ANNUAL REVIEW OF LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, VOL 9, 9, pp. 207–226.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-102612-134020

2012

Capoccia, G., Sáez, L. and de Rooij, E. (2012) “When State Responses Fail: Religion and Secessionism in India 1952–2002”, The Journal of Politics, 74(4), pp. 1010–1022.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022381612000564

2010

Capoccia, G., Saez, L. and de Rooij, E. (2010) “When State Responses Fail: Religious Fundamentalism and Domestic Territorial Challenges in India 1952-2002.”

Capoccia, G. and Zibiatt, D. (2010) “The Historical Turn in Democratization Studies: A New Research Agenda for Europe and Beyond <i>Introduction</i&gt”;, COMPARATIVE POLITICAL STUDIES, 43(8-9), pp. 931–968.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414010370431

2007

Capoccia, G. and Kelemen, R. (2007) “The Study of Critical Junctures: Theory, Narrative, and Counterfactuals in Historical Institutionalism”, World Politics, 59(3), pp. 341–369.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/s0043887100020852

2002

Capoccia, G. (2002) “Legislative Responses against Extremism. The ‘Protection of Democracy’ in the First Czechoslovak Republic (1920-1938)”, East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 16(3), pp. 691–738.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/088832540201600304

Capoccia, G. (2002) “The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws: The German System at Fifty”, West European Politics, 25(3), pp. 171–202.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/713601619

Capoccia, G. (2002) “Anti-System Parties”, Journal of Theoretical Politics, 14(1), pp. 9–35.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/095169280201400103

2001

Capoccia, G. (2001) “Defending Democracy: Strategies of Reaction to Political Extremism in Inter-war Europe”, European Journal of Political Research, 39(4), pp. 431–460.

Capoccia, G. (2001) “Proportional representation and first-past-the-post election in the German electoral system”, Quaderni di Scienza Politica, 7, pp. 99–163.

1998

Capoccia, G. (1998) “Redistricting in Germany: Relevant Legislation and Political Importance”, Nomos, 3, pp. 29–56.

Books

2010

Capoccia, G. et al. (2010) The Historical Turn In Democratization Studies. Edited by G. Capoccia and D. Ziblatt. Sage.

1995

Capoccia, G. (1995) Unified Germany Between Continuity and Renewal. The German Electoral and Party System in the Process of National Reunification. Bulzoni.

Capoccia, G. (no date) Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe.

Chapters

2016

Capoccia, G. (2016) “Critical Junctures”, in O. Fioretos, T. Falleti, and A. Sheingate (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism. Oxford University Press, pp. 89–106.

2015

Capoccia, G. (2015) “Critical Junctures and Institutional Change”, in J. Mahoney and K. Thelen (eds.) Advances in Comparative Historical Analysis. Cambridge University Press, pp. 147–179.

2010

Capoccia, G. (2010) “Germany’s Response to 9/11: The Importance of Checks and Balances”, in M. Crenshaw (ed.) The Consequences of Counterterrorism. Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 285–334.

Capoccia, G. (no date) “Defence of democracy against the extreme right in inter-war Europe. A past still present?”, in R. Eatwell and C. Mudde (eds.) Western democracies and the new extreme right challenge.

Conference Papers

2001

Capoccia, G. (2001) “Defending democracy: Reactions to political extremism in inter-war Europe”, in EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, pp. 431–460.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.00584

Reports

2006

Capoccia, G. and Freeden, M. (2006) Multi-method Research in Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Political Methodology: working paper.

2005

Capoccia, G. and Kelemen, R. (2005) The Study of Critical Junctures: Theory, Narrative and Counterfactuals in Institutional Theory.

2000

Capoccia, G. (2000) Defending Democracy: Strategies of Reaction to Political Extremism in Inter-war Europe, EUI Political and Social Sciences: working paper.

1999

Capoccia, G. (1999) Challenge, Prevention and Response: Game-Theoretical Perspective on Breakdown and Survival of European Democracies, EUI Political and Social Sciences: working paper.

1997

Capoccia, G. (1997) Electoral Abuse in PR Systems: Old and New Territorial Distortions in the German Electoral System, EUI Political and Social Sciences: working paper.