In Reform and Rebellion in Weak States, Evgeny Finkel and Scott Gehlbach emphasize that, especially in weak states, reform often must be implemented by local actors with a stake in the status quo. In this setting, the promise of reform represents an implicit contract against which subsequent implementation is measured.
In The Autocratic Middle Class: How State Dependency Reduces the Demand for Democracy, Bryn Rosenfeld explains how middle-class economic dependence on the state impedes democratization and contributes to authoritarian resilience.
In Politics for Profit: Business, Elections, and Policymaking in Russia, David Szakonyi brings to bear sweeping quantitative and qualitative evidence from Putin-era Russia to shed light on why businesspeople contest elections and what the consequences are for their firms and for society when they win.
Speakers:
Evgeny Finkel is an Associate Professor of International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was born in L’viv (USSR, current-day Western Ukraine) and grew up in Israel. He received a BA in Political Science and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Scott Gehlbach is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. A political economist and comparativist, Gehlbach’s work is motivated by the contemporary and historical experience of Russia, Ukraine, and other post-communist states. He has made numerous contributions to the study of autocracy, economic reform, political connections, and other important topics in political economy.
Bryn Rosenfeld is an Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University. Her research interests include comparative political behavior, with a focus on regime preferences and voter behavior in nondemocratic systems, development and democratization, post-communism, and survey methodology.
David Szakonyi is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University and a Research Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He works on non-market strategy, political economy, and corruption, with current projects underway in Russia and the United States.