Author Archive

Alejandro Espinosa Herrera

I am a D.Phil. candidate in Political Science at the University of Oxford and a member of Nuffield College. My research interests include public budgeting, fiscal federalism, decentralisation, party politics, and Latin American politics.

I hold a M.Sc. in Latin American Studies (honours) and a M.Sc. in Politics, both from the University of Oxford, as well as a B.A. in Economics from Tecnológico de Monterrey.

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On May 9, President Donald Trump fired the director of the FBI James Comey in a risky and largely unprecedented move. Initially, members of the Trump administration argued that Comey was fired because his incompetent handling of Hilary Clinton’s email scandal had cost him his legitimacy. Why would President Trump fire the head of an agency that symbolizes the integrity of law enforcement and rule of law of which the American system is so proud? In American history only one other FBI director has ever been fired. In 1993, President Bill Clinton fired William Sessions, a Republican hold-over from the Ronald Reagan administration. As the Nixon Presidential Library was at pains to point out, not even President Richard Nixon dared to …