Sebastián L. Mazzuca graduated in Political Science (MA, PhD) and Economics (MA) from the University of California at Berkeley and has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Academy for International and Area Studies. His work focuses on state formation, regime change, and economic development. On state formation, he published the book Latecomer State Formation: Political Geography and Capacity Failure in Latin America with Yale University Press (2021). On political economy, he edited three volumes of essential readings with the Cámara Andina de Fomento (2015-18). On democratization, he co-authored Middle-Quality Institutional Trap with Gerardo Munck (Cambridge University Press, 2020). His articles have been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in International Comparative Development, Journal of Democracy, Hispanic American Historical Review, Qualitative & Multi-Method Research, and The Oxford Handbook of Political Science.

Undergraduate Courses

Comparative Regime Change 
Political Economy of Order and Prosperity
Game Theory in the Social Sciences 

Graduate Courses

Comparative State Formation 

“Varieties of Clientelism” (with Jordan Gans-Morse and Simeon Nichter), American Journal of Political Science, 2014.

“State or Democracy First?” (with Gerry Munck), Democratization, 2014.

“The Rise of Rentier Populism in South America,” Journal of Democracy, 2013.

“Commodity Boom and Institutional Poisoning: The New Political Economy of South America,” in J. Dominguez and M. Shifter (eds.), Democratic Governance in Latin America, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.

“Regime” (with Gerardo Munck), in J. Alt et al. (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, CQ Press/Sage, 2011.

“Macro-Foundations of Regime Change,” Comparative Politics, 2010.

“Access to Power versus Exercise of Power: Democratization and Bureaucratization in Latin America,” Studies in Comparative International Development, 2010.

“Political Conflict and Power-sharing in the Origins of Modern Colombia” (with James Robinson), Hispanic American Historical Review, 2009.