Alper Sukru Gencer

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at New York University. I study how citizens evaluate political choices when democratic threats are hidden inside complex reforms, polarized narratives, or crisis politics.

My dissertation develops a behavioral account of democratic backsliding. I examine why citizens sometimes accept reform packages with harmful institutional consequences, especially when those consequences are bundled with popular policies or presented through selective information.

My research connects comparative politics and political behavior. I study how citizens respond to democratic backsliding, affective polarization, crisis politics, and failures of political accountability.

I use survey experiments, causal inference, and formal theory to examine how people evaluate complex political choices under uncertainty.

My dissertation research has been supported by the American Political Science Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the Identities & Ideologies Project at NYU, and the NYU George Downs Prize.