Department of Political Science

Ferraro, Stefan

Dissertation:

Canada’s Shadow Workforce: The Effects of Military Privatization on Political Behaviour and Authority within Liberal-Democratic States, and their Implications for International Security

Biography

Stefan is a specialist in Canadian government and politics and international relations, with a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Toronto. He is an experienced educator, researcher, and data and policy analyst, and recipient of several prominent research awards (e.g., the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).

While Stefan’s expertise is varied, his doctoral research examined the effects of security privatization in Canada on democratic governance and international security. In particular, amid a global growth in the private security industry, it asked how Canadians view the hiring of private contractors by federal agencies (e.g., Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence), the mechanisms behind public perceptions, and whether contracting out lowers political risks and accountability. These areas have been understudied in a Canadian context, despite the risks that contracting out poses to democratic governance and the exercise of state power. To examine them, Stefan designed and programmed a nationwide survey experiment in Qualtrics, secured almost 5,000 participants, and then analyzed the results in Stata using a series of statistical models. He also combed through relevant Canadian legislation and government reports, and conducted a secondary analysis of existing data to map domestic and global industry trends.

Stefan’s expertise goes beyond the realm of security. He has worked as a data specialist for the University of Toronto and Postmedia Network, where he collected, merged, and cleaned data on political party donations in Canada, as part of the 2020 update to the award-winning “Follow the Money” database. In other projects, he has coded legislative transcripts for level of emotion and sentiment to help examine whether the public can gauge the tone of political exchanges; collected and analyzed data to help identify federal swing ridings in Canada; and designed and programmed a survey in Qualtrics to create a method of crowd-sourcing party manifesto coding.

Stefan has also taught at the University of Toronto for over a decade in various roles related to the study of the Canadian government and politics and political behaviour. Most notably, he was a course instructor in POLD53 “Political Disagreement in Canada,” a fourth-year seminar that examined the social-scientific explanations for political behaviour and then applied them to the analysis of historical and contemporary issues in Canada (e.g., federal-provincial relations).

Research Interests

Private contractors

Private military and security companies

Military/security privatization

Mercenaries

Foreign/defence policy

International relations/security

Canadian government and politics

Comparative politics

Democratic governance

Public policy

Political behaviour

Public Opinion

Previous Degrees

M.A., Political Science, University of Toronto
B.A. (Hons.), Political Science, York University

Teaching Experience

Course Instructor

POLD53H “Political Disagreement in Canada,” UTSC (2018)

Teaching Assistant

POLB50Y “Canadian Government and Politics,” UTSC (2021-2022)
POL214Y “Canadian Government and Politics,” STG (2018-2019)
POLB50Y “Canadian Government and Politics,” UTSC (2014-2019)
POLB50H “Canada’s Political Institutions,” UTSC (2012)
POLA51H “Critical Issues in Canadian Democracy,” UTSC (2011)
POL316Y “Contemporary Canadian Federalism,” STG (2010-2011)