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Steven Wilkinson |
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| Major Areas of Interest: | -Comparative Politics
-Ethnic Conflict & Nationalism -South Asia |
| Selected Publications: | -Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge 2004) -Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition (Cambridge, 2006), co-edited with Herbert Kitschelt |
| E-Mail: | swilkinson@uchicago.edu |
| Phone: | (773) 702-3403 |
| Office: | Pick 411 |
| Office hours: |
Steven Wilkinson (Ph.D. MIT) is Associate Professor of Political Science. His main interests are in: 1) ethnicity and nationalism; 2) patronage politics and the politics of distribution; 3) the long term effects of colonization on governance and conflict. In the theoretical study of all these areas, he draws upon his continuing research interests in the society and politics of South Asia. His book Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and EthnicRiots in India (2004), was co-winner of the American Political Science Association's 2005 Woodrow Wilson Foundation award for the "the best book on government, politics, or international affairs." His second book Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition (2006) is co-edited with his former colleague at Duke, Herbert Kitschelt. In this book Kitschelt, Wilkinson and their contributors explore the reasons why politicians in some states choose to use clientelistic strategies to attract votes rather than more programmatic appeals.
Wilkinson's current research project is on Colonization, Institutions and Conflict. This book is in part inspired by the fine work done over the past decade by economists, sociologists, historians and political scientists who have tried to explore how differences in patterns of colonization affect post-independence levels of governance, conflict and economic growth generally. The project draws on a massive new database on political institutions, colonial indigenization of administration and military services, infrastructure, and ethnic imbalance among the main groups before and at the time of independence. The hope is that these variables can improve our understanding of post-independence levels of democracy, governance and conflict.
In 2006-07, Wilkinson is co-director of the Comparative Politics Workshop.
