University of Pennsylvania Political Science Department

Falleti, Tulia

Tulia G. Falleti - Assistant Professor
237 Stiteler Hall

Phone: 215-898-4240
Email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Ph.D., Northwestern University, 2003
Curriculum Vitae (.pdf)(.doc)

I have been an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 2004. My research and teaching focus on issues of federalism, decentralization, local governance, and democratization. My book Decentralization and Subnational Politics in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming March 2010) analyzes why and how different sequences of decentralization (administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization reforms) lead to disparate outcomes in the distribution of power among national and subnational executives. The book is based on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews conducted in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Part of the findings of this project are published in “A Sequential Theory of Decentralization: Latin American Cases in Comparative Perspective,” American Political Science Review (Vol. 99, No. 3, August 2005: 327-346), which earned the 2006 Gregory Luebbert Award for the best article in comparative politics. Other articles and essays of mine, on federalism, decentralization, and qualitative methodology, have appeared in Publius, Perspectives on Politics, Latin American Politics and Society, The Americas, the APSA-CP Newsletter, Qualitative Sociology, as well as in Critique Internationale (France), Desarrollo Económico, PostData (Argentina), Política y Gobierno (Mexico), Sociologias, Opinião Pública (Brazil), and in refereed edited volumes published in the United States, Argentina, and Brazil.

I am currently working on a research project on the evolution of health reforms and local governance in Brazil, research that I plan to extend to the case of Argentina. I am also writing a paper on the legacies of authoritarianism on intergovernmental relations, and coordinating a network of researchers who work on federalism and subnational politics in Argentina. For more information on my research, teaching, professional affiliations, and service, please visit my curriculum vitae or my publications, many of which can be found below in this page.

Areas of Interest
• Comparative Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Decentralization
• Federalism
• Historical Institutionalism

Selected Publications
In English:
• “Context and Causation in Political Analysis,” with Julia Lynch. Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 42, No. 9, (in press) September 2009. (Download)

• “Theory-Guided Process-Tracing: Something Old, Something New,” APSA-CP, Newsletter of the Organized Section in Comparative Politics of the American Political Science Association, Volume 17, Issue 1, Winter 2006, 9-14.(Read this article)

• "A Sequential Theory of Decentralization: Latin American Cases in Comparative Perspective," American Political Science Review, Vol. 99, No. 3, August 2005, 327-346. Winner of the 2006 Gregory Luebbert Best Article Award, granted by the Comparative Politics Section of the APSA (Read this article)

• “Federalism and the Subnational Separation of Powers” (with Maxwell A. Cameron), Publius. The Journal of Federalism, Vol. 35, No. 2, Spring 2005, pp. 245-271. (Read this article)

• “Unity by the Stick: Regional Conflict and the Origins of Argentine Federalism” (with Edward Gibson), In Edward L. Gibson (ed.) Federalism and Democracy in Latin America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, 226-254.
(Read this article or buy the book from the publisher)

• “Reallocative Federalism: Overrepresentation and Public Spending in the Western Hemisphere” (with Edward Gibson and Ernesto Calvo). In Edward L. Gibson (ed.) Federalism and Democracy in Latin America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, 173-196. (Read this article or buy the book from the publisher)

• “Federalism and Decentralization in Argentina: Historical Background and New Intergovernmental Relations,” in Joseph S. Tulchin and Andrew Selee (eds.) Decentralization and Democratic Governance in Latin America, Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, 2004, 67-100. (Download)

• Governing Governors: Coalitions and Sequences of Decentralization in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. Ph.D. Thesis, Political Science Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2003.
(Read the first chapter or purchase this publication)

In Spanish:
• “Federalismo y descentralización en Argentina. Antecedentes históricos y nuevo escenario institucional de las relaciones intergubernamentales" in Adriana Clemente and Catalina Smulovitz (eds.) Descentralización, políticas sociales y participación democrática en Argentina, Buenos Aires, IIED-AL, 2004, 7-38. (Read this article)

• “Descentralización educativa en Argentina. Condicionantes institucionales y consecuencias políticas” in Adriana Clemente and Catalina Smulovitz (eds.) Descentralización, políticas sociales y participación democrática en Argentina, Buenos Aires: IIED-AL, 2004, 93-122. (Read this article)

• “Federalismo y descentralización educativa en Argentina. Consecuencias (no queridas) de la descentralización del gasto en un país federal,” in Ernesto Calvo and Juan Manuel Abal Medina (eds.) El federalismo electoral argentino: sobrerrepresentación, reforma política y gobierno dividido en la Argentina, Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 2001, 205-230.
(Read this article)

• “Federalismo y Descentralización Educativa en Argentina: la Constitución, los Gobernadores y el Consejo Federal de Educación”, in Sindicalismo Docente y Reforma Educativa en América Latina, Boletín No. 9, FLACSO, Buenos Aires,
September 2001, 9-16. (Read this article)

• “Federalismo redistributivo: sobrerrepresentación territorial y la transferencia de ingresos en el hemisferio occidental” (with Edward Gibson and Ernesto Calvo), Política y Gobierno, Vol. VI, Nr.1, Mexico, primer semestre 1999, 15-40. (Download)

In Portuguese:
• “Efeitos da Descentralização nas Relações Intergovernamentais: O Brasil em Perspectiva Comparada,” Sociologias, 8, No.16, July-December, 2006, 46-85 (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil) (Download)

• “Federalismo Realocativo: Sobre-representacao legislativa e gastos publicos no hemisferio ocidental" (with Edward Gibson and Ernesto Calvo), Opiniao Publica, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Sao Paolo, Vol. IX, No.1, April 2003, 98-123. (Download)

In French
• “S’emparer du pouvoir ou créer du pouvoir? Les héritages des régimes militaires dans la décentralisation en Argentine et au Brésil” [ To Seize or to Create? The Legacies of Militarism on Decentralization in Argentina and Brazil], Critique internationale (Presses de Sciences Po, Paris, France, France), No. 35, April-June 2007, 101-117. (Download)

Course Sampler
• Latin American Politics
• Comparative Politics of Federalism and Decentralization
• Democratization
• Transitions to Democracy

Some of my favorite websites (by countries or themes)
• Mexico
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ventana

• Latinos in the US - Immigration
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/migrantparticipation

• Want to read a book or watch a film from or about Latin America? Check out this website for excellent suggestions and intelligent reviews (with a link to the African Review of Books)
http://www.latamrob.com/

• U.S. Historic Maps
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/maps/maps.cfm