Books
Why Politics Fails
Penguin Random House (worldwide) and PublicAffairs (North America), 2023
An exploration of why democratic politics so often disappoints and what we can do about it. Drawing on research in political economy and historical analysis, the book examines five fundamental challenges that democracies face.
Translations: German (Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt), Spanish (Peninsula/Planeta), Portuguese (Porta Editora), Brazilian Portuguese (Companhia das Letras), Greek (Metaixmio), Korean (Korea Economic Daily & Business), Chinese (Horizon Publishing), Japanese (Asuka Shinsha)
Inward Conquest: The Political Origins of Modern Public Services
Cambridge University Press, Studies in Comparative Politics series, 2021 (with Johannes Lindvall)
An examination of how modern states developed the capacity to deliver public services to their citizens, tracing the origins of state-building in the nineteenth century.
Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach
Cambridge University Press, Studies in Comparative Politics series, 2014 (with David Samuels)
A new theoretical and empirical approach to understanding the relationship between economic inequality and democratic transitions.
Awards
- 2015 Woodrow Wilson Prize for Best Book on government, politics, or international affairs (American Political Science Association)
- 2015 William H. Riker Prize for Best Book in Political Economy (APSA Section on Political Economy)
- Honorable Mention, 2015 Best Book Award, APSA Section for Comparative Democratization
Social Policy in Small European States
Berghahn Books, 2012 (edited with Gary Cohen, Robert H. Cox, and Jane Gingrich)
A comparative analysis of how small European states have developed and maintained their distinctive approaches to social policy.
From the Ballot to the Blackboard: The Redistributive Political Economy of Education
Cambridge University Press, Studies in Comparative Politics series, 2010
An analysis of how democratic politics shapes educational investment and inequality across countries.
Awards
- 2011 William H. Riker Prize for Best Book in Political Economy (APSA Section on Political Economy)