Hello! My name is Andrés Schelp. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University. My primary subfield is International Relations.
Hello! My name is Andrés Schelp. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University. My primary subfield is International Relations.
My research agenda lies at the intersection of the politics of knowledge and social pressure in world politics. I study global indicators and comparative benchmarks related to democracy and economic conditions. My work focuses on how these global assessments are constructed and to what extent they can shape foreign policy preferences and decision-making, as well as influence public evaluations of government performance. I primarily draw on survey experiments, quantitative text analysis, and archival research.
In my dissertation, I analyze the political implications of democracy indices and their relationship to states' foreign policy through a mixed-methods study of the Freedom in the World (FITW) report, a prominent democracy rating. First, I examine how human rights evaluations by U.S. foreign policy elites in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices relate to the assessments and classification criteria used by the FITW. Building on these findings, I explore the extent to which these democracy ratings translate into tangible political consequences for both positively and negatively assessed countries by examining whether they condition U.S. developmental and diplomatic policies toward evaluated states.
My research agenda lies at the intersection of the politics of knowledge and social pressure in world politics. I study global indicators and comparative benchmarks related to democracy and economic conditions. My work focuses on how these global assessments are constructed and to what extent they can shape foreign policy preferences and decision-making, as well as influence public evaluations of government performance. I primarily draw on survey experiments, quantitative text analysis, and archival research.
In my dissertation, I analyze the political implications of democracy indices and their relationship to states' foreign policy through a mixed-methods study of the Freedom in the World (FITW) report, a prominent democracy rating. First, I examine how human rights evaluations by U.S. foreign policy elites in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices relate to the assessments and classification criteria used by the FITW. Building on these findings, I explore the extent to which these democracy ratings translate into tangible political consequences for both positively and negatively assessed countries by examining whether they condition U.S. developmental and diplomatic policies toward evaluated states.
Before coming to Northwestern, I worked as an academic assistant at the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), a preeminent Latin American think tank advising on foreign policy and multilateral diplomacy. I received my B.A. from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina, 2016) and my M.A. in International Politics and Economy from San Andrés University (Argentina, 2021).
Before coming to Northwestern, I worked as an academic assistant at the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), a preeminent Latin American think tank advising on foreign policy and multilateral diplomacy. I received my B.A. from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina, 2016) and my M.A. in International Politics and Economy from San Andrés University (Argentina, 2021).