In my doctoral (UBC) and post-doctoral (STANCE, Lund) work, I have studied the development of the modern state during the 19th and 20th centuries. I am currently working on a book manuscript on the role of national legislatures in the development of modern states in Europe and the Americas.
As a research fellow of the Royal Academy of Letters based at Lund University, I lead a project on the “Deliberative Capacity of Democratic Systems”. The project aims to (1) identify the institutional characteristics of public spheres among contemporary democracies, (2) explain historically this institutional variation, and (3) examine the effects of institutional differences on the quality of democracy and democratic attitudes.
I also have published a couple of articles on popular sovereignty, citizenship and the rights of foreigners. The first of these articles, with Antje Ellermann (UBC), discusses the ethics of policies of immigrant selection in liberal democracies. The second one draws on the literature on “discursive opportunity structures” to explain why the enfranchisement of non-citizens has been a highly contested issue in places like France, the US or Germany, but not in countries like Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands.
Agustín Goenaga 