Presenters: Aram Hur, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri; Gerardo L. Munck, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southern California; Grigore Pop-Eleches, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University; Daniel Treisman, Professor of Political Science, UCLA
Respondent: Ricarda Hammer, WCED Postdoctoral Fellow
Moderator: Dan Slater, WCED Director

Following transitions to democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, many countries have ceased making democratic progress. They have failed to improve the quality of their democracy even after being democracies for several decades. They have hit a democratic ceiling. The collection of papers offer an alternative to the influential “erosion narrative” and draw attention to the distinct problem of democratic ceilings. The papers consider the evolution of democracy on a global scale and analyze in depth cases in East Asia, Latin America, and East-Central Europe. They consider various factors (economic development, nationalism, patrimonialism, and citizen attitudes) that determine why democratic progress has stalled. Jointly, they show that scholarship on democracy should treat the problem of democratic ceilings as a central problem in global politics.

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Aram Hur’s research focuses on nationalism and democracy in East Asia, with particular emphasis on issues of identity change, integration, and democratic support in the Korean peninsula and Taiwan. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Electoral Studies, and the Journal of East Asian Studies.

Gerardo Munck's research focuses on political regimes and democracy, methodology, and Latin America. His forthcoming and most recent books include Latin American Politics and Society: A Comparative and Historical Analysis (with Juan Pablo Luna; Cambridge, forthcoming, 2022); Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science (edited with David Collier; Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming, 2022); and A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap: Democracy and State Capacity in Latin America (with Sebastián Mazzuca, Cambridge, 2020).

Grigore Pop-Eleches' main research interests lie at the intersection between comparative and international political economy with a particular interest in Eastern Europe and Latin America. He is the author of two books: From Economic Crisis to Reform: IMF Programs in Latin America and Eastern Europe (Princeton University Press, 2009) and Communism's Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes (joint with Joshua A. Tucker, Princeton University Press, 2017).

Daniel Treisman’s work focuses on Russian politics and economics and comparative political economy. He has published four books and many articles in leading political science and economics journals including The American Political Science Review and The American Economic Review, as well as in the public affairs journals Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy.

Ricarda Hammer's research interests lie at the intersection of global, historical, and postcolonial sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University in 2021, and she is currently working on her book manuscript, “Citizenship and Colonial Difference: The Racial Politics of Rights and Rule across the Black Atlantic.”

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