Indian American political scientist Saloni Bhogale is among ten scholars working on critical issues of democracy chosen by the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame as visiting fellows for the 2026-27 academic year.
As a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow, Bhogle will investigate how local democratic institutions in the Global South maintain the rule of law through increased accountability and improved citizen trust, Notre Dame, Indiana-based institution announced.
Bhogale, who holds a PhD and an MS in statistics, both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializes in comparative politics and political methodology. Her research examines the mechanisms by which deepening democracy can sustain the rule of law and drive human development.
Bhogale’s Kellogg research project, titled “Local Institutions and the Rule of Law,” investigates how local democratic institutions in the Global South maintain the rule of law through increased accountability and improved citizen trust.
Her current book project of the same name highlights the critical role of local politicians in overcoming the limitations of customary legal authorities to promote development.
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This work builds upon her dissertation, which demonstrates how political decentralization and robust checks and balances increase access to justice and institutional performance.
To analyze these questions, Bhogale developed a novel corpus of administrative data spanning millions of observations, integrating scientific computing and machine learning with qualitative interviews to provide a high-granularity look at how democratic institutions serve their citizens.
Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation’s Law and Science Dissertation Grant, APSA’s Experimental Research Section Early Career Fellowship, and the Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship, as well as the Elections Research Center and the Institute for Regional and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
As Bhogle and other early-career scholars representing the next generation of researchers focusing on critical global democracy issues arrive on campus, they will participate in the institute’s rich intellectual life, including seminars and collaborative working groups, according to the release.
“Their insights will add to the vibrant intellectual exchange that has been a hallmark of the Kellogg Institute for decades,” said Guadalupe Ramirez, senior program manager of visiting fellowships and graduate student affairs.