David Stasavage is a political scientist known for his work on democracy and political economy. He is the author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today (Princeton, 2020). Deemed “one of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation” by Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die. Stasavage’s work provides a new understanding of early democracy in multiple regions of the world and traces the evolution of modern democracy.
Stasavage earned his BA at Cornell University and his doctorate from Harvard. He taught at the London School of Economics from 1999 to 2005, acquiring the rank of reader. While In Europe he worked for the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation, the Centre for the Study of African Economies and the Bank of England. He is the Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Politics at NYU’s Department of Politics and an Affiliated Professor in NYU’s School of Law.