Richard S. Katz’ research focuses primarily on political parties and electoral systems in the industrialized democracies of Europe, North America, and the British Commonwealth.  He has also published work on public support of the arts, the European Union, and electoral behavior.  His books include A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems (Johns Hopkins University Press 1980, 2007), Democracy and Elections (Oxford University Press 1997), and Political Institutions in United States (Oxford University Press 2007), as well as numerous edited and co-edited volumes.  He has taught at the City University of New York, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Central European University, and the Institut d’Etudes Politique de Lille.

Katz currently serves on the executive committee of the European Consortium for Political Research and as chair of the core group of experts on party regulation for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE.  He is a past editor of the European Journal of Political Research and of the EJPR Political Data Yearbook, and has served, or is serving, on the editorial boards of the Journal of Politics, Representation, the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Irish Political Studies, Party Politics, and European Union Politics.