Comparative Politics

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The comparative politics faculty believes that advances in political analysis are best achieved through a simultaneous commitment to rigorous empirical research and extensive theoretical knowledge.  All of us have devoted many years to studying politics as it is practiced in specific places in the world, but we also seek to connect this knowledge to the broader social scientific enterprise aimed at advancing our understanding of politics more generally.

Some faculty research how political institutions shape party systems, policy, democratic stability, levels of corruption, and other political outcomes; others investigate how social structures combine to shape political behavior and democratic accountability. Faculty members also study how politics affects economic development and the structure of welfare states.  Finally, many of us examine the politics of authoritarian and democratic regimes.