Link at Princeton University Press
I am the author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today, which will be published by Princeton University Press in June 2020. In it I provide a new understanding of the early rise of democracy in multiple world regions; I explain the survival of democracy in Europe and its disappearance in China and the Middle East; and I then trace the long evolution of modern democracy while highlighting its internal tensions. Exploring the deep history of democracy – both early and modern – can teach us much about our current anxieties.
I currently serve as the Dean for the Social Sciences at New York University and the Julius Silver Professor in NYU’s Department of Politics. I also have affiliations in NYU’s School of Law, as well as its Department of History. In 2016, together with Ken Scheve, I published Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe, a book that charts the evolution of progressive taxation in twenty countries over the last two centuries. I also have a number of recent papers on these and related topics.
“Democracy, Inequality, and Antitrust.” With Michael Allen and Ken Scheve.
Foundations of a New Democracy: Schooling, Inequality, and Voting in the Early Republic. Forthcoming. American Political Science Review. (with Tine Paulsen and Ken Scheve)
Equal Treatment and the Inelasticity of Tax Policy to Rising Inequality, Comparative Political Studies, (2022). with Ken Scheve)
Biogeography, Writing, and the Origins of the State, Handbook of Historical Economics, (2021).
Learning to Love Government? Technological Change and the Political Economy of Higher Education (with Carlos Lastra-Anadon and Ken Scheve
Democracy, Autocracy, and Emergency Threats: Lessons for COVID-19 From the Last Thousand Years, International Organization (2020)
Origins of Early Democracy (with Ali Ahmed) American Political Science Review (2020)
How Large Are the Political Costs of Fiscal Austerity? (with Eric Arias) Journal of Politics (2019)
Wealth Inequality and Democracy (with Ken Scheve) Annual Review of Political Science (2017)
When Inclusive Institutions Failed: Lessons from the Democratic Revolutions of the Middle Ages
David Stasavage 