Rui Branco is Associate (with Habilitation) Professor at the Department of Political Studies, NOVA University (Lisbon) and Senior Researcher at IPRI-NOVA. His research interests focus on comparative state formation, democratization and social protection. He has recently worked on civil society and democratization, fiscal welfare and inequality, and labour market reforms during the crisis. He edited with M. Bernhard and T. Fernandes the special issue «Civil Society, Democracy, and Inequality: Cross-Regional Comparisons (1970s-2015)» (Comparative Politics, 2017); co-authored with D. Cardoso, «Liberalized Dualization. Labour Market Reforms and the Crisis in Portugal: a New Departure» (European Journal of Social Security, 2018), with E. Costa, «The Golden Age of Fiscal Welfare: Tax Expenditures and Inequality in Portugal (1989-2011)» (New Political Economy, 2019) and, with A. Guillén, S. Sacchi & D. Balbona, «Here to Stay? Reversals of Structural Reforms in Southern Europe as the Crisis Wanes» (South European Society and Politics, 2019). He recently co-edited with T. Fernandes the book 45 Anos de Democracia em Portugal (Assembleia da República, 2020), where he published the chapter «Estado-Providência e Democracia Igualitária: Portugal e a Europa do Sul»