Associate Professor
Pick Hall 417
773 702 8056
On Leave 2019-20
Michael Albertus is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His main research focus is on the political conditions under which governments implement egalitarian reforms. His first book, Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform, published by Cambridge University Press, examines why and when land reform programs are implemented. It won the 2016 Luebbert Award for best book published in comparative politics in 2014 or 2015. Other research interests include political regime transitions and stability, politics under dictatorship, clientelism, and civil conflict. Albertus' work has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Economics & Politics, World Development, Latin American Research Review, and elsewhere.
Selected Publications:
- “Unlikely Democrats: Economic Elite Uncertainty Under Dictatorship and Support for Democratization,” with Victor Gay. American Journal of Political Science (2016).
- Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform. 2015. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- “Land Inequality and Rural Unrest: Theory and Evidence from Brazil,” with Thomas Brambor and Ricardo Ceneviva. Journal of Conflict Resolution (2016).
- “The Role of Subnational Politicians in Distributive Politics: Political Bias in Venezuela’s Land Reform under Chávez.” 2015. Comparative Political Studies 48(13): 1667-1710. (Lead article).
