Overview
Rachel Beatty Riedl is the Peggy J. Koenig ’78 Director of the Center on Global Democracy in the Brooks School of Public Policy, and a Professor in the Brooks School and Department of Government at Cornell University.
Her research expertise is on democracy and authoritarianism globally, and particularly across Africa. She focuses on questions of participation, institutions, political parties, and local governance. She recently led the USAID’s Democracy, Rights and Governance learning agenda “Opening Democratic Spaces” research report. Riedl is also a member of the Open Society University Network’s Forum on Democracy and Development. Riedl is the author of the award-winning Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa and co-author of From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa.
She has been a visiting fellow at the Yale Program on Democracy, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame, and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. She previously served as the John S. Knight Professor and Director of the Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell. She is a full member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the Editorial Committee of World Politics, and co-editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements series Politics of Development.
Riedl served as the President of the Scientific Committee of the Institute of Advanced Studies (France), and as Chair of the Democracy and Autocracy section of the American Political Science Association. She has conducted policy analysis for USAID, the World Bank, the State Department, the Carter Center, and other organizations on issues pertaining to governance reforms, elections, democratic representation, and identity politics.
She is co-host of the podcast Ufahamu Africa, featuring scholarly analysis about life and politics on the African continent. PhD Princeton University.
Research Focus
- Research Interest(s): Democracy and Autocracy, Regime Transitions; Political Party Systems and Democratic Institutions; Decentralization and Local Governance; Authoritarian Legacies; Religion and Politics
- Program Area(s): Comparative Politics
- Regional Specialization(s): Africa
- Subfield Specialties: Comparative Historical Analysis; Political Parties
Publications
- Authoritarian-Led Democratization (Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 23, 2020)
- From Pews to Politics, Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa (Cambridge University Press, October 2019)
- Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa (Cambridge University Press, March 2014)
In the news
- Conference on African political economy honors van de Walle
- Our foreign students are terrified, and they’re right to be
- Global experts look abroad for lessons in super election year
- Cornell democracy expert: Trump’s election comments ‘reject democratic principles’
- Reynolds Foundation commits $1.25M to fund Brooks School initiatives
- Brooks School launches center to combat democratic decline
- A.D. White professor addresses threats to democracy
- Speaker series focuses on China’s communist past and present
- Democratic decline a global phenomenon, even in wealthy nations
- Panel offers advice for students interested in public affairs internships
- Einaudi Center welcomes new and returning program directors
- Sudan’s return to peace hinges on re-empowering civilian government
- High stakes and high risk in Nigeria landmark election
- Cornell, global partners discuss the next ‘grand challenge’
- Iceland president: ‘Turn smallness into strength’
- Polarization research in Ecuador underscores risks to U.S. democracy
- Einaudi awards fund global research and activities
- Experts: Ukraine war puts world in ‘uncharted territory’
- Nicaraguan cartoonist finds refuge at Einaudi Center
- Einaudi welcomes new program directors and opportunities
- Nobel laureate Sen to lecture on protecting democracy
- Nyabola to speak at Race and Racism Across Borders event
- President Clinton: U.S. in ‘dogfight’ for democracy
- President Clinton to speak on the future of U.S. democracy
- Search committee set for policy school’s founding dean
- Indian MP Rahul Gandhi to speak on democracy March 2
- Some GOP members didn’t accept Biden’s win. What happens when an anti-democratic faction rocks a democracy?
- Migrations initiative wins $5M Mellon grant for racial justice
- Students’ summers saved with global virtual internships
- Migrations: Understanding the Implications of a World on the Move (video)
- Cornell experts probe threats to democracy from COVID-19
- Global democratic challenges due to pandemic examined in webinar
- COVID-19 impact: Rachel Beatty Riedl on Africa’s response
- Einaudi Center awards eight faculty grants
- Vice provost illuminates Cornell’s global role and impact
- New Einaudi Center director launches book in Zambia
GOVT Courses - Spring 2025
- GOVT 2274 : Global Studies Gateway
- GOVT 2323 : Global Democracy and Public Policy
- GOVT 4999 : Undergraduate Independent Study