Antonino Castaldo is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (since 2015). PhD in Political Science from the University of Florence (2008). Researcher at the Science Po University (Paris) in 2007, Assistant Professor at Luiss University (Rome) in 2008, Assistant Professor at Roma Trede University 2008 until 2015, Lecturer in European Political and Economic Structures at the Accademia Italiana (Rome) Assistant Researcher at the University of Oxford (Coordinator Prof. Giovanni Capoccia) in 2011, postdoctoral researcher at Roma Treem University 2012, Assistant Researcher at Roma Trein University 2013. Between 2013 and 2015 he was a member of the Secretariat of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP). In recent years, the themes of its research activity have focused mainly on political parties and party systems, the analysis of democratization processes and the collapse of non-democratic regimes. Its main current line of research is related to the study of autocratic processes, in particular the specific theme of the diffusion of competing authoritarian regimes, focusing mainly on the Balkan region and the Middle East.