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[ Research | Dissertation | Publications | Works in Progress | Education | Contact ]

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I am a political sociologist mainly concerned with studying power and social networks. Using computational methods, I examine how elites coordinate, how institutions gain or lose public trust, and how networks of money and organizations shape social and political outcomes. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my cat, composing atmospheric synth music, and playing Mahjong.

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Research

My current research is at the intersection of political sociology and social network analysis. I use computational methods to trace the ties among corporate directors, the firms they govern, and the political campaigns they fund. This informs questions of community structure and political outcomes, especially regarding elections.

Much of my work engages a long-running debate in the study of power. In particular, I have contributed to debates about the extent to which the corporate community in the United States may be characterized as politically unified or fragmented. I have also published on how the use of artificial intelligence affects public trust in American institutions, and on the international NGO networks that promote Western democracy.

Research areas:

• Political sociology
• Power structure research
• Social network analysis
• Campaign finance and elections
• Computational social science
• Causal inference methods

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Dissertation

My dissertation explores whether and how America’s most connected business leaders help candidates win seats in Congress. Studies of money in politics usually treat donors as cash cows. I argue that the social networks corporate donors are embedded in may be equally valuable resources. Their ties across the corporate world let them vouch for candidates, rally other donors, and open doors that money alone cannot. I test whether this social capital helps candidates win beyond the dollar sum these donors give. In doing so, the project offers power structure research a direct test of whether elite networks translate into electoral power, and shows scholars of money in politics that who gives can matter as much as how much.

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Publications

• Collins, Andrew. 2026. “Fractured or Reconfigured? A Review of the Debate on U.S. Corporate Elite Unity.” Sociology Compass 20(3):e70181. [PDF] [DOI]
  A critique of the fractured-elite thesis, with three empirical claims in support of the corporate-dominance alternative.
  See the reply by Mark S. Mizruchi, “Fractured? Yes. Reconfigured? Maybe. Unified? Unlikely.” Sociology Compass. [DOI]
• Collins, Andrew, and Jason Jeffrey Jones. 2023. “Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Social Trust in American Institutions.” Journal of Social Computing 4(3):221–231. [PDF] [DOI]
  A survey experiment on a sample designed to mirror the U.S. population. Trust in police, companies, and hospitals fell when they were described as using AI. Government agencies were the exception and gained slightly.
• Kim, Jessica, and Andrew Collins. 2023. “Patterns of Global Democracy Promotion: Centrality in DINGO Networks, 1981–2015.” Socius 9. [PDF] [DOI]
  Uses network centrality to trace democracy-promoting international NGO networks from 1981 to 2015. Countries became more connected overall, but ties in the civil liberties network remain unevenly distributed.

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Works in Progress

• Corporate Elites and U.S. House Elections (dissertation).
  Do candidates backed by America’s most connected business leaders win more often? See the dissertation section above.
• Democracy for Whom? The Two Worlds of Democracy Promotion. With Jessica Kim (shared first author) and Yeneca Lee.
  Global networks of democracy-promoting NGOs are split between the West and the rest of the world. We show that this split also produces different ideas of what democracy means, and draw on postcolonial theory to explain why.

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Education

PhD	Sociology, Stony Brook University (in progress)
MSc	Political Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science
BA	Sociology, Clark University
General Course	Visiting undergraduate year, London School of Economics and Political Science

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Contact

Andrew Collins
Department of Sociology
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794
E-mail: Andrew.Collins@stonybrook.edu

CV available on request.

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