Vincenza Falletti is a postdoctoral researcher specializing in legal and democratic theory. Her work in democratic theory focuses on how institutional design and administrative structures influence the legitimacy and functioning of representative government, with particular emphasis on the European Union. Originally from Italy, Vincenza is currently based in Barcelona.

She holds a PhD in Law, with a specialization in political theory, from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2020–2025), where she defended the dissertation “The European Union as a hyper-complex system. Tackling expertise and legitimacy: toward a competent democracy,” which was awarded cum laude. Prior to this, she earned both a BA and MA in Political Science and International Relations (2013–2018) from LUISS Guido Carli University, where she developed a strong interest in global political and legal dynamics.

Over the years, she has gained diverse research and professional experience across European institutions and academic settings, including a research stay at University College London, as well as roles as a policy officer at the European Commission and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These experiences have shaped her interest in understanding how democratic principles translate into institutional practices and policy decisions.

She joined the REPGOV team first as a Research Assistant and now serves as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Within the project, she investigates how administrative principles and bureaucratic structures interact with democratic legitimacy across EU member states. Her research critically examines how bureaucracy—often perceived as neutral—can embed normative assumptions into public policy, influencing democratic values without explicit authorization from elected representatives. Additionally, she studies the interaction between bureaucratic and expert authority, seeking to understand when and how these forms of power reinforce or reshape the principles of representative democracy.

By employing a framework rooted in European structural integrity, she contributes to REPGOV’s broader objective of analyzing how representative institutions engage with European bureaucratic actors and whether current mechanisms effectively balance administrative efficiency with democratic oversight.