Prof. Dr. Fabio Wasserfallen

Professorship of European Politics / Managing Director

Institute of Political Science

E-Mail
fabio.wasserfallen@unibe.ch
Office
D 170
Postal Address
University Bern
Institute Political Science
Fabrikstrasse 8
3012 Bern
Switzerland

About Prof. Dr. Fabio Wasserfallen

Fabio Wasserfallen is Professor of European Politics and Director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern. After a research stay at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center of International Affairs, he completed his PhD at the University of Zurich in 2014. In the same year, he moved to the Centre of European Union Studies of the University of Salzburg as Assistant Professor of Political Economy, wehre he received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017. The academic year 2014/15, he spent as Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University. Before joining the University of Bern in 2020, Fabio Wasserfallen was Professor of Comparative Politics at Zeppelin University. The spring term 2023, he spent as visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests include European integration, the institutions and politics of the European Union, public opinion, policy diffusion, federalism, and direct democracy. The findings of his research have been published, among others, in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, and European Journal of Political Research.

Journal Articles

“Executive Power in European Union Politics”
Co-authored with Silvana Târlea, Stefanie Bailer and Zdenek Kudrna (2024)
Governance 37(1): 161–178. [Link]  [PDF]

“Differentiated Influence by Supranational Institutions: Evidence from the European Union”
Co-authored with Magnus Lundgren, Jonas Tallberg (2023)
European Journal of Political Research, Early View. [Link]

“Conflict among Member States and the Influence of the Commission in EMU Politics”
Co-authored with Zdenek Kudrna (2021)
Journal of European Public Policy 28(6): 902–913.  [Link]  [PDF]

“Expectations, Vote Choice, and Opinion Stability Since the 2016 Brexit Referendum”
Co-authored with Charlotte Grynberg and Stefanie Walter (2020)
European Union Politics 21(2): 255–275.
[Link]  [PDF]  [Replication Archive]  [Appendix]  [Blog]

“The Politics of Policy Diffusion”
Co-authored with Fabrizio Gilardi (2019)
European Journal of Political Research 58(4): 1245–1256.  [Link]  [PDF]

“Political Conflict in the Reform of the Eurozone”
Co-authored with Thomas Lehner (2019)
European Union Politics 20(1): 45–64.
[Link]  [PDF]  [Replication Archive]  [Appendix]  [Blog]  [Blog in German]

“Explaining Governmental Preferences on Economic and Monetary Union Reform”
Co-authored with S. Târlea, S. Bailer, H. Degner, L. Dellmuth, D. Leuffen, M. Lundgren,
and J. Tallberg (2019), European Union Politics 20(1): 24–44.  [Link]  [PDF]  [Blog]

“Global Diffusion, Policy Flexibility, and Inflation Targeting” (2019)
International Interactions 45(4): 617–637.  [Link]  [PDF]  [Replication Archive]  [Appendix]

“Analysing European Union Decision-Making during the Eurozone Crisis with New Data”
Co-authored with Dirk Leuffen, Zdenek Kudrna, and Hanno Degner (2019)
European Union Politics 20(1): 3–23.  [Link]  [PDF]  [Codebook, Appendix & Datasets]

“Extending the Use and Prediction Precision of Subnational Public Opinion Estimation”
Co-authored with Lucas Leemann (2017)
American Journal of Political Science 61(4): 1003–1022.  [Link]  [PDF]  [Replication archive]

“How Socialization Attenuates Tax Competition”
Co-authored with Fabrizio Gilardi (2016)
British Journal of Political Science 46(1): 45–65.
[Link]  [PDF]  [Replication archive]  [Appendix]  [Blog]

“The Democratic Effect of Direct Democracy”
Co-authored with Lucas Leemann (2016)
American Political Science Review 110(4): 750–762.
[Link]  [PDF]  [Replication archive]  [Appendix]  [Blog]

“Learning and the Diffusion of Regime Contention in the Arab Spring”
Co-authored with Justus Bamert and Fabrizio Gilardi (2015)
Research & Politics 2(3): 1–9.  [Link]  [PDF]  [Replication archive]

“The Cooperative Capacity of Swiss Federalism” (2015)
Swiss Political Science Review 21(4): 538–555.  [Link]  [PDF]

“Revitalizing Swiss Federalism in a Changing Environment”
Co-authored with Katharina Füglister (2014)
Comparative European Politics 12(4/5): 404–421.  [Link]  [PDF]

“Political and Economic Integration in the EU: The Case of Failed Tax Harmonization” (2014)
Journal of Common Market Studies 52(2): 420–435.  [Link]  [PDF]  [Appendix]

“Contextual Variation in Interdependent Policy Making: The Case of Tax Competition” (2014)
European Journal of Political Research 53(4): 822–839.
[Link]  [PDF]  [Replication archive]  [Appendix]

“The Judiciary as Legislator? How the European Court of Justice Shapes Policy-Making in the EU” (2010), Journal of European Public Policy 17(8): 1128–1146.  [Link]  [PDF]
 

Editorships

“The Politics of Eurozone Reforms”
Co-Editor with Zdenek Kudrna and Sonja Puntscher Riekmann
London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021.

Special Issue Editor, “Decision-Making During the Eurozone Crisis”
European Union Politics 20(1), 2019.
 

Book Chapters

“Switzerland and the European Union” in Emmenegger, Patrick, Flavia Fossati, Silja Häusermann, Yannis Papadopoulos, Pascal Sciarini, and Adrian Vatter (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Swiss Politics, 2023, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [PDF]

“The Politics of Fiscal Integration in Eurozone Reforms and Next Generation EU” in Admaski, Dariusz, Fabian Amtenbrink, and Jakob de Haan (eds), Handbook on European Monetary, Economic, and Financial Market Integration, 2023, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [PDF]

“Why Has the Framework Agreement Been So Controversial Even Though It Was Initiated by Switzerland Itself?” in Bernauer, Thomas, Katja Gentinetta und Joëlle Kuntz (eds), A Swiss Foreign Policy for the 21st Century, 2022, Zurich: NZZ libro. [PDF]

“Aussenpolitik” (mit Laurent Goetschel) in Papadopoulos, Yannis, Pascal Sciarini, Adrian Vatter, Silja Häusermann, Patrick Emmenegger und Flavia Fossati (Hg.), Handbuch der Schweizer Politik, 2021, Zürich: NZZ libro. [PDF]

“The Politics of the Eurozone: Analyses of New Data from Multiple Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives” (with Zdenek Kudrna and Sonja Puntscher Riekmann) in Kudrna, Zdenek, Sonja Puntscher Riekmann, and Fabio Wasserfallen (eds), The Politics of Eurozone Reforms, 2021, London: Rowman and Littlefield. [PDF]

“Preference Formation and Decision-Making in the Reform of the Eurozone” (with Stefanie Bailer and Jonas Tallberg) in Kudrna, Zdenek, Sonja Puntscher Riekmann, and Fabio Wasserfallen (eds), The Politics of Eurozone Reforms, 2021, London: Rowman and Littlefield. [PDF]

“Measuring Attitudes – Multilevel Modeling with Post-Stratification (MrP)” (with Lucas Leemann) in Curini, Luigi and Robert J. Franzese (eds), The Sage Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations, 2020, London: Sage.  [PDF]

“How Member States Cope with the Eurozone Crisis” (with Sonja Puntscher Riekmann) in Morlino, Leonardo and Cecilia Sottilotta (eds), 2019, The Politics of the Eurozone Crisis in Southern Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.  [PDF]

“Policy Diffusion and European Public Policy Research” in Ongaro, Edoardo and Sandra van Thiel (eds.), 2018, The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.  [PDF]

“Cantonal Tax Autonomy in Switzerland” (with Daniel Kübler and Fabrizio Gilardi) in Ruiz- Almendral, Violeta and Francois Vaillancourt (eds), Tax Autonomy of Subnational Entities, 2013, London: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

“Multilevel Elections and Second Order Effects in Switzerland” (with Daniel Bochsler) in Dandoy, Regis and Arjan H. Schakel (eds), Regional and National Elections in Western Europe, 2013, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Habilitation Thesis

“Essays on Federalism, Democracy, and Diffusion”
Cumulative Habilitation Thesis, Salzburg: University of Salzburg. 2017.
 

Ph.D. Thesis

“Lessons From an Ideal-Typical Case of Interdependent Policy Making”
Cumulative Ph.D. Thesis, Zurich: University of Zurich. 2014.

Welcome to the chair of European Politics

The research and teaching at the Chair of European Politics analyzes the history of European integration, the current challenges of the European Union, and the polity, politics, and policies of the European Union. This also includes a particular focus on the study of public opinion and political conflict within and between the institutions of the European Union. The fields of policy diffusion, federalism, and direct democracy are additional research interests of Fabio Wasserfallen.

Lead

Doctoral Candidate

Student Assistant

Secretariat

The foundational lectures at the Chair of European Politics examine the history of European integration, discuss the institutions and decision making processes of the European Union, and analyze the current challenges and major policy fields of the European Union. Building on these foundational lectures, more advanced seminars further deepen specific elements of European Politics.

The research at the Chair of European Politics focuses, among others, on European Integration, Economic and Monetary Union, the institutions of the European Union, policy diffusion, federalism, and direct democracy. From 2015 to 2019, Fabio Wasserfallen coordinated together with Sonja Puntscher Riekmann the Horizon 2020 Project “EMU Choices”, which investigates the politics of the Eurozone crisis.