Chris Altamura

In general, my research focuses on democracy and authoritarianism. My approach is informed by classical and critical sociological theory, and I mainly employ quantitative methods. In practice, this leads to the empirical study of topics such as voting behavior, political attitudes, protest activity, and more. My MA thesis "Dialectic of Dominance: Authoritarianism(s) and the 2012 Presidential Election" analyzed the relationship between authoritarianism, prejudice, and voting behavior in the 2012 U.S. presidential election using American National Election Studies data. My dissertation analyzes the social and attitudinal correlates of punitiveness, support for workplace democracy, and recent protest activity in the U.S. and Soviet Russia. Currently, I am working on integrating causal inference methods into my research, beginning with data on over 4,000 U.S. riots I am converting into a quantitative form for future public use.