Steven Levitsky
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

Steven Levitsky (born January 17, 1968) is an American political scientist and Professor of Government at Harvard University.

A comparative political scientist, his research interests focus on Latin America and include political parties and party systems, authoritarianism and democratization, and weak and informal institutions.[1]

He is notable for his work on competitive authoritarian regimes and informal political institutions.[2]

Education

Levitsky received a B.A. in political science from Stanford University in 1990 and a Ph.D., also in political science, from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999.[2]

Academia

Career

After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1999, Levitsky was a visiting fellow at the University of Notre Dame's Kellogg Institute for International Studies.[3]

He joined Harvard University as Assistant Professor of Government in 2000. There, he went on to serve as the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences (2004-2008) before receiving tenure as Professor of Government in 2008.[2][3] At Harvard, Levitsky also sits on the Executive Committees of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.[4] Levitsky is an advisor to several student organizations, including the Harvard Association Cultivating Inter-American Democracy (HACIA Democracy).[5]

Work

Levitsky is known for his work with University of Toronto professor Lucan Way on "competitive authoritarian" regimes, that is, hybrid government types 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.[6] Writing about the phenomenon in 2002, Levitsky and Way named Serbia under Slobodan Milošević and Russia under Vladimir Putin as examples of such regimes.[7] When collaborating, Levitsky brings his expertise on Latin America while Way brings his on countries of the former Soviet Union.[8]

In 2018, Levitsky published How Democracies Die with fellow Harvard professor Daniel 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 Die received widespread praise. It spent a number of weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list and six weeks on the non-fiction bestseller list of the German weekly Der Spiegel.[9] The book was recognized as one of the best nonfiction books of 2018 by the Washington Post, Time, and Foreign Affairs.[10] Levitsky and Ziblatt have also co-authored numerous opinion articles on American democracy in the New York Times.[11]

Personal life

He is married to Liz Mineo, a Peruvian journalist graduated from National University of San Marcos and Columbia University, who currently works at The Harvard Gazette.[12] Levitsky lives with his wife and daughter in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is Jewish.[13]

Selected bibliography

Books

Journal articles

This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Missing more recent journal articles since 2009. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2024)

References

  1. ^ "Steve Levitsky, Professor of Government". Harvard University. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  2. ^ a b c Balakrishna, Aditi (December 12, 2007). "Popular Levitsky Awarded Tenure". Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  3. ^ a b Steven Levitsky curriculum vitae, 2009. Via Harvard University website. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  4. ^ "Senior Advisers and Executive Committee". Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Harvard University. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  5. ^ HACIA: XXII Summit of the Americas: Faculty advisor guide (2016). p. 2. Available as a PDF file at the HACIA Democracy website. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  6. ^ 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 as PDF file via Harvard faculty page. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  7. ^ Levitsky & Way (2002), p. 52.
  8. ^ Berman, Sheri (2022-11-01). "Good at Being Bad". Foreign Affairs. No. November/December 2022. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  9. ^ "Sachbuch". Spiegel Online. Der Spiegel. 25 August 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  10. ^ "How Democracies Die". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  11. ^ Levitsky, Steven; Ziblatt, Daniel (20 September 2019). "Why Republicans Play Dirty: They fear that…". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Daily News reporter chosen for Harvard fellowship". The MetroWest Daily News. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  13. ^ 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."

External links

Authority control databases
Categories