Jose Maria Maravall

José María Maravall has been deputy for the Socialist Party and Minister of /Education and Science from 1982 until 1988. He is currently Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid. His works is focused on two main issues: elections, political conditions that enable the citizenry to oversee government activities; and comparative sociology of economic politics. 

Prof. Maravall was the Coordinator of the group "Economics and Social Conditions" at the Conference on Democratic Transition and Consolidation" in 2001. He has published a number of works on the influence that regime change and ideologies have over economic politics, exploring the experiences of recently democratized European countries. He has also conducted investigations on labor movements along with political and social theory issues and the impact that economic performance has on popular support for governments and democratic systems. 

His books and articles study elections, government accountability, internal democracy within parties, and judicial control in democratic systems. His research has focused on political transition in Spain and political changes in Eastern and Central European countries. Regarding these changes, Prof.Maravall is particularly interested on political agents' strategies, and the evolution of party and party systems.