Colonial Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship

Alexander Lee is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford and his BA from Yale. His research focuses on the factors governing the success or failure of political institutions, especially the historical evolution of state capacity, the political economy of South Asia and the causes and consequences of identity politics. He is the author of The Cartel System of States: An Economic Theory of International Politics ( 2022), From Hierarchy to Ethnicity: The Politics of Caste in Twentieth-Century India (2020) and Development in Multiple Dimensions: Social Power and Regional Policy in India (2019).

Jack Paine is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Emory University. He earned his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and his BA from the University of Virginia. His research analyses the origins of political regimes, how they survive, and when they break down into conflict. In addition to colonial origins, he studies the strategic foundations of authoritarian power sharing, the guardianship dilemma, and democratic backsliding.