Bio

I'm a Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of Graduate Studies at George Washington University, where I've taught since 2013. I was previously a faculty member at Australian National University and received my PhD in Politics from Princeton University in September 2011. I have broad research interests across comparative politics, formal and quantitative methodology, and political economy, with a focus on democratization and autocratic elections. In my 2021 book, Shock to the System: Coups, Elections, and War on the Road to Democratization, I argue that democratization typically stems from either violent elite shocks or elections that maintain a significant share of power for the ruling party. 

I recently helped start a project called Authoritarian Warning Survey, which involves democracy scholars evaluating threats to American democracy through a survey and rapid reactions to current events. Follow us at our website and at @authwarning.

Publications

Papers in Physical Sciences


Current Projects


Other Work