Welcome

I am a PhD candidate the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University. Broadly, my research focuses on how already stable autocracies develop institutions to facilitate governance and cooperation among their elites. Specifically, my dissertation focuses on succession rules, or constitutional provisions for replacing the leader after a vacancy due to a leader’s death, resignation, or incapacitation. I use an original dataset of succession rules in sub-Saharan Africa to study not only how succession rules emerge but also the consequences they have on the stability of the autocratic regime and their ability to borrow money through sovereign bonds.

Feel free to contact me at ssharman13@tamu.edu.