I am Reader in Comparative Politics at the University of Kent.

I have held visiting appointments at Harvard, the University of Cologne, Germany, the University of Berne, Switzerland, and the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.

I was educated at the University of Turin, where I took a Laurea in Social Sciences, at the University of Durham, where I did an MA in European Political and Economic Integration (with Distinction), and at the London School of Economics, where I was awarded a PhD in Government.

My research explores the causes and consequences of the territorial structure of political systems, from a comparative perspective across place and time. It has been funded by the ESRC, the British Academy, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, the São Paulo Research Foundation, the James Madison Charitable Trust, the Forum of Federations, Presence Switzerland, and the Institut d’Estudis Autonòmics.

I am the lead investigator behind the De/Centralisation Dataset (DcD), the author of Restructuring the European State (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017) and Between Two Unions: Europeanisation and Scottish Devolution (Manchester University Press, 2005), and of articles in European Political Science Review, Political Studies, Acta Politica, Swiss Political Science Review, Governance, Party Politics, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Regional and Federal Studies, Local Government Studies, Nations and Nationalism and other journals.

I am a member of the ESRC Peer Review College and of the International Advisory Board of the Swiss Political Science Review, and Kent’s official representative on the ECPR. I was previously the chair of IPSA’s research committee on Comparative Federalism and Multilevel Governance (RC28), co-editor of Routledge’s Studies in Federalism and Decentralization series, book review co-editor for Regional and Federal Studies, the director of Kent’s PhD programmes in political science, and the director of the Centre for Swiss Politics.

I provide consultancy services to public and private bodies. I have advised the UK Cabinet Office, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Senate of Spain, the Scottish Parliament, the City of London Corporation, and the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK. I have collaborated with organisations such as the OECD, the Forum of Federations, and Switzerland’s Conference of Cantonal Governments, and think tanks including the Local Government Information Unit, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Chatham House, and the Legatum Institute.

I regularly provide expert commentary for the international media and have been a member of Global Experts, the United Nations expert database, since 2010.

My teaching experience includes a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in comparative and European politics as well as successful supervision of a number of research students. I have been a visiting professor at the University of Cologne, Germany and the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain, and given guest lectures and seminars at the universities of Barcelona Pompeu Fabra, Berlin Freie Universität, Berne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Krakow Jagiellonian, Lille 2, Marburg, Oslo, Siena, and St Andrews, among others. I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education and have been a Fellow of Advance HE, the UK professional body for university lecturers, since 2005.

Follow me on Twitter @PaoloDardanelli.