Wikipedia

Steven Levitsky

Steven Levitsky(born January 17, 1968) is an Americanpolitical scientistcurrently serving as a professor of government atHarvard Universityand a senior fellow for democracy at theCouncil on Foreign Relations.[1]

Steven Levitsky
Levitsky in 2013
Born(1968-01-17)January 17, 1968(age 56)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley(Ph.D.)
Stanford University(B.A.)
Known forCompetitive authoritarianism
Informal institutions
Scientific career
FieldsPolitical science
InstitutionsHarvard University
(2000–present)
Doctoral advisorDavid Collier

Acomparative political scientist,his research interests focus onLatin Americaand includepolitical partiesandparty systems,authoritarianismanddemocratization,and weak and informalinstitutions.[2]

He is notable for his work oncompetitive authoritarian regimesandinformal political institutions.[3]

Education

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Levitsky received a B.A. inpolitical sciencefromStanford Universityin 1990 and aPh.D.inpolitical sciencefrom theUniversity of California, Berkeleyin 1999.[3]

Academic career

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Career

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After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1999, Levitsky was a visiting fellow at theUniversity of Notre Dame's Kellogg Institute for International Studies.[4] He then joinedHarvard Universitythe next year as an assistant professor of government. There he went on to serve as the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences (2004-2008) before receivingtenureas a full professor of government in 2008.[3][4]

At Harvard, Levitsky also sits on the executive committees of theWeatherhead Center for International Affairsand theDavid Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.[5] He is an advisor to several student organizations, including the Harvard Association Cultivating Inter-American Democracy (HACIA Democracy).[6]

Research

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Levitsky is known for his work withUniversity of Torontoprofessor Lucan Way on "competitive authoritarian" regimes, that is,hybrid governmenttypes in which, on the one hand, democratic institutions are generally accepted as the means to obtaining and exercising political power, but, on the other hand, incumbents violate the norms of those institutions so routinely, and to such an extent, that the regime fails to meet basic standards for democracy; under such a system, incumbents almost always retain power, because they control and tend to use the state to squelch opposition, arresting or intimidating opponents, controlling media coverage, or tampering with election results.[7]Writing about the phenomenon in 2002, Levitsky and Way named Serbia underSlobodan Miloševićand Russia underVladimir Putinas examples of such regimes.[8]When collaborating, Levitsky brings his expertise on Latin America while Way brings his on countries of the former Soviet Union.[9]

In 2018, Levitsky publishedHow Democracies Diewith fellow Harvard professorDaniel Ziblatt.The book examines the conditions that can lead democracies to break down from within, rather than due to external events such as military coups or foreign invasions.How Democracies Diereceived widespread praise. It spent a number of weeks onThe New York TimesBest Seller listand six weeks on the non-fiction bestseller list of the German weeklyDer Spiegel.[10]The book was recognized as one of the best nonfiction books of 2018 by theWashington Post,Time,andForeign Affairs.[11]Levitsky and Ziblatt have also co-authored numerousopinion articleson American democracy in theNew York Times.[12]

Personal life

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Levitsky is married to Liz Mineo, a Peruvian journalist with degrees from theNational University of San MarcosandColumbia Universitywho currently works atThe Harvard Gazette.[13]They live with their daughter inBrookline, Massachusetts.Levitsky isJewish.[14]

Selected bibliography

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Books

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  • 2023Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point.(withDaniel Ziblatt). New York. Crown.ISBN978-0-593-44307-1
  • 2022.Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism.(with Lucan Way). Princeton University Press.
  • 2018.How Democracies Die.(with Daniel Ziblatt). New York:Crown.ISBN978-1-5247-6293-3.–NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis2018;Goldsmith Book Prize2019
  • 2010.Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War.(with Lucan A. Way). New York:Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-88252-1.
  • 2006.Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America.(edited with Gretchen Helmke). Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN978-0-8018-8351-4.
  • 2005.Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness.(edited with M. Victoria Murillo). University Park:Penn State University Press.ISBN978-0-271-02715-9.
  • 2003.Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective.New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-81677-9.[Published in Spanish asTransformación del Justicialismo: Del Partido Sindical al Partido Clientelista.Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2005]

Journal articles

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  • 2009. “Variation in Institutional Strength: Causes and Implications” (with María Victoria Murillo).Annual Review of Political Science.12: 115-133.
  • 2007. "Organizacion Informal de los Partidos en America Latina" [Informal Party Organization in Latin America] (with Flavia Freidenberg).Desarrollo Económico(Argentina) 46, No. 184: 539-568.
  • 2007. “Linkage, Leverage and the Post-Communist Divide” (with Lucan A. Way).East European Politics and Societies27, No. 21: 48-66.
  • 2006. “The Dynamics of Autocratic Coercive Capacity after the Cold War” (with Lucan Way).Communist and Post-Communist Studies39, No. 3: 387-410.
  • 2006. “Organized Labor and Democracy in Latin America” (with Scott Mainwaring).Comparative Politics39, No. 1 (October): 21-42.
  • 2006. “Linkage versus Leverage: Rethinking the International Dimension of Regime Change” (with Lucan Way).Comparative Politics38, No. 4 (July): 379-400.
  • 2005. “International Linkage and Democratization” (with Lucan Way).Journal of Democracy.16, No. 3 (July): 20-34.
  • 2004. “Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda” (with Gretchen Helmke).Perspectives on Politics2, No. 4 (December): 725-740.
  • 2003. “Argentina Weathers the Storm” (with M. Victoria Murillo).Journal of Democracy14, No. 4 (October): 152-166.
  • 2003. “From Labor Politics to Machine Politics: The Transformation of Party-Union Linkages in Argentine Peronism, 1983-99.”Latin American Research Review38, No. 3: 3-36. [Also published inDesarrollo Económico,Argentina]
  • 2003. “Explaining Populist Party Adaptation in Latin America: Environmental and Organizational Determinants of Party Change in Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela” (with Katrina Burgess).Comparative Political Studies36, No. 8 (October): 859-880.
  • 2003. “Democracy without Parties? Political Parties and Regime Change in Fujimori's Peru” (with Maxwell Cameron).Latin American Politics and Society45, No. 3 (Fall): 1-33. [Also published inInstituciones y Desarrollo,Spain]
  • 2002.“Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism”(with Lucan Way).Journal of Democracy13, No. 2 (April): 51-66. [Also published inEstudios Políticos,Columbia, Vol. 24, July 2004]
  • 2001. “Organization and Labor-Based Party Adaptation: The Transformation of Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective.”World Politics54, No. 1 (October): 27-56.
  • 2001. “Inside the Black Box: Recent Studies of Latin American Party Organizations.”Studies in Comparative International Development36, No. 2 (summer): 92-110.
  • 2001. “An ‘Organized Disorganization’: Informal Organization and the Persistence of Local Party Structures in Argentine Peronism.”Journal of Latin American Studies33, No. 1 (February): 29-66. [Also published inRevista de Ciencias Sociales,Argentina, October 2001]
  • 2000. “The ‘Normalization’ of Argentine Politics.”Journal of Democracy11, No. 2 (April): 56-69.
  • 1999. “Fujimori and Post-Party Politics in Peru.”Journal of Democracy10, No. 3 (July): 78-92.
  • 1998. “Crisis, Party Adaptation, and Regime Stability in Argentina: The Case of Peronism, 1989-1995.”Party Politics4, No. 4: 445-470. [Also published inRevista de Ciencias Sociales,Argentina, September 1997]
  • 1998. “Between a Shock and a Hard Place: The Dynamics of Labor-Backed Adjustment in Argentina and Poland” (with Lucan Way).Comparative Politics30, No. 2 (January): 171-192.
  • 1998. “Institutionalization and Peronism: The Case, the Concept, and the Case for Unpacking the Concept.”Party Politics4, No. 1 (January): 77-92.
  • 1997. “Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research” (with David Collier),World Politics49, No. 3 (April): 430-51. [Also published inRivista Italiana di Scienza Politica,December 1997;Agora,Buenos Aires, January 1998; andLa Politica,Barcelona, October 1998]
  • 1991. “FSLN Congress: A Cautious First Step.”Journal of Communist Studies7, No. 4 (December): 539-544.

References

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  1. ^"CFR Welcomes Steven Levitsky as a Senior Fellow for Democracy | Council on Foreign Relations".cfr.org.Retrieved2024-08-03.
  2. ^"Steve Levitsky, Professor of Government".Harvard University. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  3. ^abcBalakrishna, Aditi (December 12, 2007). "Popular Levitsky Awarded Tenure".Harvard Crimson.Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  4. ^abSteven Levitsky curriculum vitae,2009. Via Harvard University website. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  5. ^"Senior Advisers and Executive Committee".Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Harvard University. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  6. ^HACIA: XXII Summit of the Americas: Faculty advisor guide(2016). p. 2. Available as aPDF fileat the HACIA Democracy website. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  7. ^Levitsky Steven; Way, Lucan A. (2002). "The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.".Journal of Democracy,Vol. 13, No. 2, p. 51-66; here: p. 52-53. Available asPDF filevia Harvard faculty page. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  8. ^Levitsky & Way (2002), p. 52.
  9. ^Berman, Sheri (2022-11-01)."Good at Being Bad".Foreign Affairs.No. November/December 2022.ISSN0015-7120.Retrieved2024-02-09.
  10. ^"Sachbuch".Spiegel Online.Der Spiegel. 25 August 2018.Retrieved8 December2019.
  11. ^"How Democracies Die".Penguin Random House.Retrieved13 March2019.
  12. ^Levitsky, Steven; Ziblatt, Daniel (20 September 2019)."Why Republicans Play Dirty: They fear that…".The New York Times.Retrieved8 December2019.
  13. ^"Daily News reporter chosen for Harvard fellowship".The MetroWest Daily News.Retrieved18 August2019.
  14. ^Friedman, Gabe (October 27, 2015)."The 'lifelong Zionists' who called for an Israel boycott. In a Washington Post op-ed, professors Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl urged economic sanctions on Jewish state".The Times of Israel.An Op-Ed co-written last Friday by two American Jewish professors has stirred Internet controversy, with the focus largely on their use of four words: 'We are lifelong Zionists.'
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