Alfio Cerami

I have been research associate at the Centre d’études européennes of Sciences Po, Paris. I have also been a lecturer or visiting lecturer at the University of Erfurt (Germany), at Sciences Po Paris, at the Centre for German and European Studies of the State University of St. Petersburg (Russia), at the Southern Methodist University (Paris Campus) and Assistant Professor at the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy (AGSIRD).

My work encompasses the fields of comparative politics, political sociology, European studies, international political economy and comparative social policywith a particular focus given to Central and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe, Russian Federation, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).More recently, I am also conducting research on Sub-Saharan Africa and on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. My research concentrates on the ways how political, economic and social transformations influence the process of democratization and of consolidation of democratic institutions. A particular attention of my research activities is also given to analytical sociology and to mechanisms of institutional change.

On Human Rationality/Irrationality: 'It only needs a very small quantity of hope to beget love. […] From the moment he falls in love even the wisest man no longer sees anything as it really is. […] He no longer admits an element of chance in things and looses his sense of the probable; judging by its effect on his happiness, whatever he imagines becomes reality'. (Stendhal 1957. On Love. Translated by G. and S. Sale. London: Penguin, chs 12 and 13).