Alexei Zakharov

My main research interest in nondemocratic politics and the political economy of nondemocratic regimes. I am also interested in studying the aspects of political and economic behavior that are relevant to autocratic/ democratic resilience, including social norms, civic and political participation, and redistribution preferences. In my research, I employ a wide variety of methods — formal theory, survey research, and experiments, including field experiments. Historically, my empirical research has been focused on Russia. 

My works have been published in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Economic Theory, and other journals.

I have taught a course on  Politics of Authoritarian regimes, and am currently teaching an undergraduate Social Science Inquiry course sequence, aimed at using quantitative techniques to answer social science questions. Previously, I regularly taught Political Economy and Game Theory at an advanced undergraduate level. I am also prepared to teach courses on research methods, undergraduate and graduate-level statistics, comparative politics and Russian politics. To my instruction, I bring over 10 years of on-the-ground experience with Russian civic and political initiatives such as election monitoring, street protests, and opposition campaigns. This aids me in understanding and explaining how autocracies function and where threats to democracy lie.