Welcome to my webpage.
I am an Associate Professor of Comparative and South Asian Politics at Boston College. I received my Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University in 2018.
My first research project investigated the impact of institutional change in the field of poverty alleviation on the strategies pursued by political parties in rural India. In my book, The Accommodation of Democracy: A New Political Economy of Poverty Alleviation in Rural India published in 2025 by Oxford University Press, I focused specifically on the Right to Work Legislation that has been enforced in India since 2005, and its translation into public policy, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS. My field work has led me to explore the distortions to policy implementation, and what these distortions tell us about the way political entrepreneurs attempt to capture public resources for political benefit. It also speaks to a broader literature on state capacity and the bureaucracy. Part of this research has also been published in World Development.
My second project is now looking at the institutional determinants of party building in India, and specifically the way in which parties attempt to leverage local level democratization to create a partisan cadre and to reach out to voters.
In the past, my research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Graduate School and the Government Department at Cornell University. In a previous, pre-academic, life, I worked in post-conflict and post-disaster environments, with a focus on political transitions on behalf of the US Agency for International Development.
My hobbies include vintage French automobiles and vintage motorbikes. I am the proud owner of a 1954′ 4CV Renault as well as a 1981′ Royal Enfield ‘Bullet’ 350 cc.
On this page, you may find my CV along with information about my research, including working papers; syllabi for courses I have taught at Boston College and King’s College London. You may also schedule an appointment with me at: https://calendly.com/thibaud-marcesse
Comments and questions are welcome!
Contact Info
Boston College
Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Political Science
MacGuinn Hall 502
marcesse[dot]bc[dot]edu
Zoom meeting ID: 6283585142