Introduction
Rachel Beatty Riedl is the Director and John S. Knight Professor of the Einaudi Center for International Studies and Professor in the Government Department at Cornell University. Riedl is the author of the award-winning Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and co-author of From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa (Cambridge University Press 2019). She studies democracy and institutions, governance, authoritarian regime legacies, and religion and politics in Africa. She has published in the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Studies in Comparative International Development, African Affairs, among others. A former Kellogg Institute visiting fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Yale Program on Democracy Fellow, Faculty Fulbright Scholar, Chair of the APSA section Democracy and Autocracy, and Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Nantes), she holds a PhD from Princeton University. Riedl is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has conducted policy analysis for USAID, the World Bank, the State Department and the Carter Center on issues pertaining to governance, elections, democratic representation and identity politics. She serves on the Editorial Committee of World Politics and the Editorial Board of African Affairs, Comparative Political Studies and Africa Spectrum.
Expert
Rachel Beatty Riedl is the Director and John S. Knight Professor of the Einaudi Center for International Studies and Professor in the Government Department at Cornell University. Riedl is the author of the award-winning Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and co-author of From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa (Cambridge University Press 2019). She studies democracy and institutions, governance, authoritarian regime legacies, and religion and politics in Africa. She has published in the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Studies in Comparative International Development, African Affairs, among others. A former Kellogg Institute visiting fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Yale Program on Democracy Fellow, Faculty Fulbright Scholar, Chair of the APSA section Democracy and Autocracy, and Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Nantes), she holds a PhD from Princeton University. Riedl is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has conducted policy analysis for USAID, the World Bank, the State Department and the Carter Center on issues pertaining to governance, elections, democratic representation and identity politics. She serves on the Editorial Committee of World Politics and the Editorial Board of African Affairs, Comparative Political Studies and Africa Spectrum.
Fields of expertise: Participation, Policy design and delivery, Social change / social transformations, Social policy