Professor Giovanni Capoccia

About

Giovanni Capoccia is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, where he is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College.

His current research focuses on democratic self-defense against illiberal and anti-democratic forces. He also has a strong interest in political institutions, democratization, transitional justice and historical approaches to the study of politics – fields in which he has published extensively. His writing primarily examines the politics of advanced democracies, particularly in Europe.

He has published amply on responses to illiberalism. Most recently, he has co-directed a project called Back from the Brink: Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies. The project lays the groundwork for a research agenda on how illiberal forces can be countered in liberal democracies. The results of the project have been published in a double special issue of Comparative Political Studies (Vol. 59, 1). The analysis of democratic self-defense has been a longstanding theme in his research. His work on democratic crises in interwar Europe has been published in several international journals and in a research monograph titled Defending Democracy: Responses to Extremism in Interwar Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005; paperback 2007). The book received the APSA Award for the Best Book in European Politics. In his current work, he is developing several themes within the research program outlined in Back from the Brink.

On historical democratization, Professor Capoccia has co-edited the volume The Historical Turn in Democratization Studies. The introductory article received two professional awards. His work on political institutions and institutional change is widely cited and has also received several professional awards.

Professor Capoccia has been the Rita E. Hauser Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and has held visiting positions at the Max-Planck Institute for Comparative Law in Heidelberg, the Center for European Studies at Harvard, the Institute for Political Science at the University of Heidelberg and the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po Paris. His research has also been supported by the British Academy (Senior Research Fellowship), the Leverhulme Trust (Major Research Fellowship), the Nuffield Foundation, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and various other national and international funding agencies.