Modern authoritarianism and new challenges to democracy

Anne Meng is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. Her research centers on authoritarian politics and institutions, and game-theoretic approaches to the study of dictatorship. She is the author of Constraining Dictatorship, which examines how executive constraints become established in dictatorships, particularly within constitutions and presidential cabinets. Her new book project focuses on democratic erosion.

Elizabeth Nugent is an assistant professor of political science at Yale University. Her research focuses on the politics of authoritarianism, political psychology, and the Middle East. She is the author of After Repression: How Polarization Derails Democratic Transition. At Yale, she is affiliated with the MacMillan Center, the Council on Middle East Studies, the Political Violence and its Legacies Workshop, and Pierson College, and runs a monthly research group for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows working on Middle East politics. 

Bryn Rosenfeld is assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research interests include political behavior, development and democratization, protest, post-communist politics, and survey methodology. Her first book, The Autocratic Middle Class, explains how middle-class economic dependence on the state impedes democratization and contributes to authoritarian resilience. Her other projects investigate the causes and consequences of participation in mass demonstrations, how economic performance affects the popularity of ruling parties in electoral autocracies, and how Russian media respond to government pressure.