Carlos Algara

Carlos Algara is an assistant professor of political science at Claremont Graduate University, joining the department in July 2021. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint research group directed by the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. Prior to coming to CGU, Algara was a 2019-2020 American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow working on legislative procedural and democratic accessibility policy areas within the United States Senate.

Algara received his PhD from the University of California, Davis in June 2019. His research agenda focuses on the nature of ideological representation in the United States, political parties, electoral accountability, legislative behavior, and what factors inform the policy preferences of the mass public. The core of this work centers on understanding mass elite-citizen linkages by assessing what drives the political preferences of citizens, and how these preferences inform the representation provided to them by political elites, such as legislators, electoral candidates, parties, and collective institutions.

Much of his research takes the form of active collaborations with graduate student colleagues, with some of this research being published or forthcoming in Political Behavior, PLoS One, Electoral Studies, American Politics Research, Congress & the Presidency, Politics & Gender, and other peer-reviewed outlets. His research has been supported by the Dirksen Congressional Research Center and the Center for Effective Lawmaking, while also being covered in popular media outlets such as The New York Times, National Public Radio, Texas Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and the Niskanen Center’s The Science of Politics podcast. Prior to joining CGU, he was a faculty member at the University of Texas at El Paso.