Gerardo L. Munck
Gerardo L. Munck is a political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California. Career. Munck earned his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire, a master's in Latin American studies at Stanford University, and his PhD in political science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Munck was a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign between 1990 and 2002, before moving to the University of Southern California (USC). Academic research. Munck works in the field of  comparative politics specializing in political regimes and democracy, methodology, and politics in Latin America. His recent work focuses on the relationship between democracy and state capacity and on critical junctures. Munck is also known for his research in the field of the science of knowledge and his oral histories of leading scholars in political science and comparative politics. The state and democracy. Munck, in his work with Sebastián L. Mazzuca, has advanced the argument that the process of state formation, and the resulting level of state capacity, affects the process of democratization as well as the quality of democracy. In  A Middle-quality Institutional Trap (2020), Mazzuca and Munck maintain that "States can make democracy and democracy can make States," but that they do so "only under certain macroconditions, which trigger the causal mechanisms that make the State–democracy interaction a virtuous cycle." They compare advanced democracies to Latin America and show that "in Latin America, the State–democracy interaction has not generated a virtuous cycle." They explain the poor quality of Latin American democracies in terms of various factors, including the legacy of state formation in the nineteenth century. Work with International Organizations. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Munck  collaborated with Dante Caputo and Guillermo O'Donnell in the preparation of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) report "Democracy in Latin America. Toward a Citizens’ Democracy" (2004). He also worked with Dante Caputo on a second regional report on democracy in Latin America prepared by the UNDP and the Organization of American States (OAS), "Nuestra democracia" (2010). With the UNDP, he elaborated a system to monitor corruption in Afghanistan, and wrote background papers for the UNDP regional reports on Asia and the Pacific on corruption and gender equality. Organization of American States (OAS). Munck developed a methodology to monitor  elections for the Organization of American States (OAS). Open Government Partnership (OGP). Munck was a member of the inaugural International Experts Panel of the Open Government Partnership. Personal life. Munck's grandmother is swimmer Lilian Harrison. His brother is sociologist Ronaldo Munck. Selected publications. Books and Edited Volumes. "Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science", co-editor with David Collier (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). "A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap: Democracy and State Capacity in Latin America" (with Sebastián L. Mazzuca; Cambridge University Press, 2020). "La calidad de la democracia: Perspectivas desde América Latina", co-editor with  Sebastián Mantilla Baca (Quito, Ecuador: CELAEP and Fundación Hans Seidel, 2013). "Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). "Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics" (with Richard Snyder; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). "Regimes and Democracy in Latin America", editor (Oxford University Press, 2007). “Regimes and Democracy in Latin America”, co-editor with David Collier. Special Issue of "Studies in Comparative International Development" 36, 1 (Spring 2001): 3–141. "Authoritarianism and Democratization: Soldiers and Workers in Argentina, 1976-83" (Penn State University Press, 1998). Articles. "The Theoretical Foundations of Critical Juncture Research: Critique and Reconstruction  (July 20, 2021). Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science," “Modernization Theory as a Case of Failed Knowledge Production.” "The Annals of Comparative Democratization" 16, 3 (2018): 37-41. "Building Blocks and Methodological Challenges: A Framework for Studying Critical Junctures," with David Collier, "Qualitative and Multi-Method Research" 15, 1 (2017). "What is Democracy? A Reconceptualization of the Quality of Democracy." "Democratization," 23, 1 (2016): 1-26. "Building Democracy … Which Democracy? Ideology and Models of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America." "Government and Opposition" 50, 3 (2015): 364-93. "State or Democracy First? Alternative Perspectives  on the State-Democracy Nexus," with Sebastián L. Mazzuca. "Democratization" 21, 7 (2014): 1221-43. "Democratic Politics in Latin America: New Debates and Research Frontiers." "Annual Review of Political Science" 7 (2004): 437-62. "Tools for Qualitative Research," pp. 105–21, in Henry E. Brady and David Collier (eds.), "Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards" (Boulder, Col. and Berkeley, Cal.: Rowman & Littlefield and Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2004). "Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices," with Jay Verkuilen. "Comparative Political Studies" 35, 1 (2002): 5-34. "The Regime Question: Theory Building in Democracy Studies." "World Politics" 54, 1 (2001): 119 -44. "Game Theory and Comparative Politics: New Perspectives and Old Concerns." "World Politics" 53, 2 (2001): 173-204. "Modes of Transition and Democratization. South America and Eastern Europe in Comparative Perspective," with Carol Leff. "Comparative Politics" 29, 3 (1997): 343-62. "Disaggregating Political Regime: Conceptual Issues in the Study of Democratization." "Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies Working Paper" 228 (1996).