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Laura Chaqués Bonafont

Laura Chaqués

Director, IBEI

Professor, Universitat de Barcelona

Biography

Laura Chaqués Bonafont is a Professor of Political Science at the Universitat de Barcelona and a director of Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) since 2024.

She holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the Universitat de Barcelona and a Master's degree in Political Science from the New School of Social Research in New York. With an extensive academic background, she has served as a visiting professor at esteemed institutions such as the University of Washington, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and King's College London. She leads the research group "Quality of Democracy" (www.Q-Dem.com), which focuses on analyzing the interplay between governmental, parliamentary, and media agendas over time, across various issues, countries, and government levels in Spain from a comparative standpoint. Her work bridges policy dynamics research with key areas of political science, including political representation, interest groups, and the quality of democracy in multilevel governance systems. The project has contributed to the development of quantitative measurement tools for policy dynamics and offers numerous datasets accessible at www.q-dem.com. She has written several books, numerous book chapters, and articles published in prestigious academic journals such as Comparative Political Studies, The British Journal of Political Science, West European Politics, Political Communication, the Journal of Public Policy, and the European Journal of Political Research. Her research excellence has been recognized with various awards, including the ICREA Academia award.

Currently, her primary research interest lies in the comparative analysis of agenda dynamics, with a specific focus on the roles of interest groups, political elites, and social media.

Background and education

  • (1992) BA in Economics, University of Barcelona
  • (1997) Master in Political Science, New School for Social Research, New York
  • (1999) Phd Political Economy, University of Barcelona

Research

Research interests

  • Policy dynamics
  • Agenda setting
  • Political representation in a multilevel system of governance
  • Interest groups

Selected publications

  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Martínez-Cantó, Javier; Breunig, Christian

    .
    2022.Foxes and Hedgehogs in Legislatures: Why Do Some MPs Become Policy Specialists and Others Generalists?.Legislative Studies Quarterly,48:869-896LinkLogo open access
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Cristancho, Camilo

    .
    2021.The gender divide in issue attention.European Journal of Political Research,Doi: 10.1111/1475-6765.12437Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Cristancho, Camilo; Muñoz-Márquez, Luz; Rincón García, Leire

    .
    2020.The contingent character of interest groups–political parties’ interaction.Journal of Public Policy,1-22Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Borghetto, Enrico

    .
    2019.Parliamentary Questions.Comparative Policy Agendas: Theory, Tools, Data.Oxford:Oxford University Press.Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Palau, Ana Maria; Muñoz, Luz

    .
    2019.Agenda dynamics in Spain.In: F. R. Baumgartner; C. Breunig; E. Grossman (Eds.).Comparative Policy Agendas: Theory, Tools, Data.Oxford:Oxford University Press.Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura

    .
    2019.The Agenda-Setting Capacity of Global Networks.In:

    D. Stone and K. Moloney (Eds.)

    .
    The Oxford Handbook of Global Policy and Transnational Administration.Oxford:Oxford University Press,pp: 575-94.LinkLogo open access
  • Binderkrantz, Anne S.; Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Halpin, Darren R

    .
    2017.Diversity in the News? A Study of Interest Groups in the Media in the UK, Spain and Denmark.British Journal of Political Science,47(2):313-328Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Muñoz Márquez, Luz M.

    .
    2016.Explaining interest group access to parliamentary committees.West European Politics,39:6:1276-1298,LinkLogo open access
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Palau, Ana Maria; Baumgartner, Frank

    .
    2015.Agenda dynamics in Spain.London:Palgrave.Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Palau Ana Maria; Muñoz, Luz

    .
    2015.Government-opposition dynamics in Spain under the pressure of economic collapse and the debt crisis.Journal of Legislative Studies,21 (1):75-95Link
  • Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura; Baumgartner, Frank

    .
    2015.All news is bad news: newspaper coverage of political parties in Spain.Political Communication,32 (2):268-291Link
All publications