Gerardo L. Munck is a

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

specializing in

comparative politics Comparative politics is a field in political science characterized either by the use of the ''comparative method'' or other empirical methods to explore politics both within and between countries. Substantively, this can include questions relatin ...

. He is professor of political science and international relations at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

Career

Munck earned his undergraduate degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

, a master's in

Latin American studies Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic and research field associated with the study of Latin America. The interdisciplinary study is a subfield of area studies, and can be composed of numerous disciplines such as economics, sociology, history ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and his PhD in

from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

(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

specializing in political

regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

, and

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

. His recent work focuses on the relationship between democracy and

state capacity State capacity is the ability of a government to accomplish policy goals, either generally or in reference to specific aims. A state that lacks capacity is defined as a fragile state or, in a more extreme case, a failed state. Higher state capacity ...

, on critical junctures, and on

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

Munck is also known for his research in the field of the science of

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...

and his

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

of leading scholars in

and

The conceptualization and measurement of democracy

Munck's award winning article with Jay Verkuilen “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy" (2002) introduced a widely used distinction between issues of conceptualization, measurement, and aggregation. In work with Jørgen Møller and Svend-Erik Skaaning (2020), Munck elaborated this framework and argued that, "counter to an empiricist approach to measurement," attention should be placed "squarely on theoretical concepts" and "the link between theoretical concepts and measures."

The state and democracy

Munck, in his work with Sebastián L. Mazzuca, has advanced the argument that the process of

state formation State formation is the process of the development of a centralized government structure in a situation where one did not exist prior to its development. State formation has been a study of many disciplines of the social sciences for a number of ...

, and the resulting level of

, affects the process of democratization as well as the quality of democracy. In ''A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap: Democracy and State Capacity in Latin America'' (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.

Problems ''of'' and ''for'' democracy

Munck's book ''Latin American Politics and Society: A Comparative and Historical Analysis'' (2022) has been hailed as a "titanic enterprise that combines historical, cross-national, and case-specific knowledge with simple yet sharp analytical idea." One of its overarching themes is the interaction between problems ''of'' democracy, "problems linked to the attainment, maintenance, and improvement of democracy," and problems ''for'' democracy, "problems regarding the development and strengthening of civil and social rights that citizens expect or hope democracies will deliver." Munck argues that "problems ''of'' democracy have prevented the elimination of problems ''for'' democracy, and problems for democracy block the possibility of reducing problems of democracy."

Work with International Organizations

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Munck collaborated with

Dante Caputo Dante Caputo (25 November 1943 – 20 June 2018) was an Argentine academic, diplomat and politician, who served as the nation's foreign minister under President Raúl Alfonsín. Academic activity Dante Mario Antonio Caputo was born in Buenos ...

and

Guillermo O'Donnell Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure (February 24, 1936 – November 29, 2011) was a prominent Argentine political scientist, specializing in comparative politics, who spent most of his career working in Argentina and the United States, and who m ...

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

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 The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to ...

Personal life

Munck's grandmother is swimmer

Lilian Harrison Lilian Gemma Harrison (February 8, 1904 – January 11, 1993) was an Argentine marathon swimmer, the first person to swim across the River Plate, the widest river in the world, on December 22, 1923; and a holder of the world record of endurance ...

. His brother is sociologist

Ronaldo Munck Ronaldo Munck is an Argentine sociologist who has worked on the political sociology and globalisation of Latin America and Ireland. Biography Ronaldo Munck was born and educated in Argentina. He completed his PhD in political sociology at th ...

Selected publications

Books and Edited Volumes

''Latin American Politics and Society: A Comparative and Historical Analysis'' (with J.P. Luna; Cambridge University Press, 2022). ''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,” pp. 109–37, in David Collier and Munck (eds.), ''Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science,'' Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022

“Conceptualization and Measurement: Basic Distinctions and Guidelines,” pp. 331–52, in Luigi Curini and Robert Franzese (eds.), ''The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations,'' Vol. 1, with Jørgen Møller and Svend-Erik Skaaning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2020

“Comparative Politics at a Crossroad: Problems, Opportunities and Prospects from the North and South,” with Richard Snyder. ''Política y Gobierno'' (Mexico) Vol. 26, Nº 1 (2019): 139-58

“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)

References

External links

Personal Website

Gerardo Munck Papers at SSRN
* ''The Critical Juncture Project,'' coordinated by David Collier and Gerardo L. Munc

Website on Latin American politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munck, Gerardo L. University of Southern California faculty Argentine political scientists American political scientists Latin Americanists Living people People from Buenos Aires Argentine emigrants to the United States 1958 births