Marcus J. Kurtz

• Comparative and international political economy
• Latin American Politics
• Democratization and Economic Reform
• State Building

Marcus Kurtz is also the coordinator for the Comparative Politics Research Workshop

Current Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Published Papers (list)

Professor Kurtz has research and teaching interests in the areas of comparative politics, democratization,  political economy and development, with a focus on Latin America. His publications have appeared in such journals as American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Politics, Politics & Society, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and Theory and Society. His book, entitled Free Market Democracy and the Chilean and Mexican Countryside is available at Cambridge University Press. He is currently working on a second book project, Social Foundations of Institutional Order, that examines the socio-political foundations of state building and failure in four South American countries with a comparative extension to the Prussian case. Other ongoing research examines the causes and consequences of differing strategies of international economic integration in Latin America, the role of the state in economic development, the cross-national measurement of state capability or governance, as well as the effects of free market developmental strategies on the problem of democratic consolidation 

Selected Publications:

2012. "Paths of Policy Diffusion: When and How Diffusion Shapes Financial Globalization in Latin America" (with Sarah Brooks) International Organization (Forthcoming).

2011. "Conditioning the Resource Curse: Globalization, Human Capital, and Growth in Oil Rich Nations" (with Sarah Brooks) Comparative Political Studies (Forthcoming).

2009. "The Social Foundations of Institutional Order: Reconsidering War and the Resource Curse in Third World State Building" (with Sarah Brooks) Politics & Society Vol. 37:4 (December).  Winner: Best paper award, Political Sociology Section, American Sociological Association, 2010.

2008.  "Embedding Neoliberal Reform in Latin America" (with Sarah Brooks) World Politics Vol. 60:2 (January).

2007.  "Capital, Trade, and the Political Economies of Reform" (with Sarah Brooks) American Journal of Political Science Vol. 51:4 (October).

2007a.  "Growth and Governance: Models, Measures, and Mechanisms" (with Andrew Schrank) Journal of Politics Vol. 69:2 (May).

2007b.  "Growth and Governance: A Defense" (with Andrew Schrank) Journal of Politics Vol. 69:2 (May).

2005.  "Credit Where Credit is Due: Open Economy Industrial Policy and Export Diversification in Latin America and the Caribbean" (with Andrew Schrank)  Politics & Society Vol. 33:4 (December).

2005.  "The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Protection: The Case of Software" (with Kenneth Shadlen and Andrew Schrank) International Studies Quarterly Vol. 49:1 (March).

2004.  "The Dilemmas of Democracy in the Open Economy: Lessons from Latin America" World Politics Vol. 56:2 (January).

2004.  Free Market Democracy and the Chilean and Mexican Countryside (New York: Cambridge University Press).