Manuel Cabal Lopez
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. M.A. Cabal Lopez
- Telephone
- 070 8009500
- m.a.cabal.lopez@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-5157-7107
Manuel Cabal is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science.
Manuel Cabal is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science.
Since September 2023, he has been working as University Lecturer within the framework of the Sector Plan for the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), under the theme Resilience in Youth. His research and teaching interests center on comparative politics and institutions with a regional focus on Latin America. He is particularly interested in how states have historically governed their peripheries, and how young democracies reform their public sectors, strengthen primary education, and promote citizenship.
His research follows two main strands. The first explores the politics of primary education reform in Latin America, particularly the role of activists and non-governmental organizations in transforming education systems. The second investigates the subnational variations in education institutions after the Mexican Revolution and how provinces reshaped national policies. Using comparative and historical methods, his research illuminates the long-term political conditions that foster—or constrain—inclusive education systems.
Dr. Cabal teaches courses on comparative politics, research methods, and international relations. At Leiden University, he teaches Comparative State Formation (BSc), Latin America’s Institutional Change (BSc), Qualitative Research Methods (BSc), Introduction to Comparative Politics (BSc, LUC), and Great Debates in Political Science (MSc).
Before joining Leiden University, he taught at the Committee of International Relations of the University of Chicago, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science. He also worked for the Mexican federal government as a policy analyst and speechwriter.
Assistant professor
- Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
- Policital Science
- Cabal Manuel Chambers-Ju Christopher (2026), Varieties of Policy Advocacy: Elite Activism and Education Politics in Latin America, Studies in Comparative International Development : .
- Cabal Manuel (2023), Regionalism against Centralization: Resistance to Federal Education after the Mexican Revolution, Publius: The Journal of Federalism 53(1): 28-54.
- Cabal M. (2022), Teachers as State-Builders: Public Education and Land Reform in Post-Revolutionary Mexico. Annual conference of the American Political Science Association 15 September 2022 - 18 September 2022.
- Cabal López M.A. (29 September 2021), Elite Conflict and Developmental Public Goods in Revolutionary Mexico (Dissertatie. Department of Political Science, Division of Social Sciences, University of Chicago). Supervisor(s): Dan Slater.
- Cabal M. (2019), Trusting the State and Becoming Citizens: Literacy and Land Reform in Mexico. Annual conference of the American Political Science Association 29 August 2019 - 1 September 2019.