Biography

Alexia’s main research interests evolve around the political behaviour of individuals, in both voting and collective action, as well as the role of political institutions such as political parties, church and police within West European democracies.
Alexia received her Ph.D. in Politics from the Government Department at Essex University, UK in 2008. Her thesis dealt with changes in individual voting behaviour criteria from 'ideology' to 'valence' considerations in Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands from 1973 to 2005.

Before that, Alexia completed an M.A. in Comparative Democratization at the University of Essex and a B.A. in International Politics and Economics at the University of Macedonia, Greece. She also had short research stays at the University of Copenhagen and University of Marburg.

Her current research deals with the origins of valence issues. This focuses on evaluating the influence of consensus and issue salience on the construction of valence issues; the role of voters’ perceptions and political party campaigns and media coverage in driving this consensus.

She is also involved in comparative research on the influence of valence politics in different political systems, depending on the strength of ideological convictions and the influence of positional issues.

Further research projects include Greek politics; experimental politics with the use of economic lab-based experiments to test group identities and outgroup discrimination; political and economic antecedents and outcomes of social pacts in Western Europe (ESRC funded), and trends in the British charity sector as a form of economic activity and political engagement.