Professor
Fields of Interest
Biography
Victor Menaldo (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2009) is a professor of Political Science and is affiliated with the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS), Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for Environmental Politics. He co-founded the UW Political Economy Forum (along with James Long and Rachel Heath).
He specializes in comparative politics and political economy.
Menaldo has published articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Annual Review of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, World Politics, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Economics & Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Policy Sciences, Business & Politics, Economics & Political Studies, Resources Policy, World Development and Journal of Evolutionary Economics.
He has published three books, all with Cambridge University Press:
“The Institutions Curse”, (2016).
"Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy" (with Mike Albertus), (2018).
“U.S. Innovation Inequality and Trumpism” (with Nicolas Wittstock), (2025).
Menaldo is interested in the political economy of property rights, industrialization, innovation, liberal democracy, and development and enjoys sharing his insights with policymakers, pundits, and the general public; he's published Op-eds in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Seattle Times, Forbes, and Foreign Policy.
His book on the Political Economy of AI is slated to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2026. Chapters 1 & 2.
Research
Selected Research
- Magistro, Beatrice and Menaldo, Victor A., "How Populism Harms Prosperity: Unified Populist Rule Reduces Investment, Innovation, and Productivity", Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2025. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4719671
- Michael Albertus, Victor Menaldo, and Jorge Rojas-Vallejos. 2025. "Why Elites Sometimes Undo Their Own Constitutional Privileges". World Development.
- Victor Menaldo and Nicolas Wittstock. 2024 "U.S. Innovation Inequality and Trumpism: The Political Economy of Technology Deserts in a Knowledge Economy." Cambridge University Press.
- Menaldo, Victor and William Gochberg. “To Rent or not to Rent? Mechanics, Causes and Consequences of Ricardian and Quasi-rents in the Oil Industry” (with Will Gochberg). Resources Policy 78, 3 (2022): 102826. DOI:10.2139/ssrn.3758351
- Victor Menaldo & Nicolas Wittstock (2021) Does technology transfer from the US to China harm American firms, workers, and consumers? A historical and analytic investigation, Economic and Political Studies, 9:4, 417-446, DOI: 10.1080/20954816.2021.1933768
- Menaldo, Victor and Nicolas Wittstock. "Does Technology Transfer from the US to China harm American firms, workers, and consumers? A historical and analytic investigation." Economic and Political Studies, 2021. Download PDF
- Victor Menaldo. "Do Patents Foster International Technology Transfer? Evidence from Spanish Steelmaking, 1850-1930." Patents, Inventors, and Politics: Historical Perspectives on Current Debates, Oxford University Press 2021. Download PDF
- Michael Albertus, Victor Menaldo. "The Stickiness of ‘Bad’ Institutions: Constitutional Continuity and Change Under Democracy." Institutional Weakness: Power and Design in Latin American Institutions, Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 61-97.
- Beatrice Magistro and Victor Menaldo. "POPULISM: A Tale of Political and Economic Catastrophe." APSA Comparative Politics Newsletter, Fall 2020, pp. 39-47. Download PDF
- Victor Menaldo and Michael Albertus. “Dictators and Democrats: Masses, Elites, and Regime Change." Perspectives on Politics. vol. 16, no. 4, 2018. Download PDF
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy. Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- Victor Menaldo. “The Fiscal Roots of Urban Bias” Business and Politics." vol.16, no.4, 2016.
- Victor Menaldo. “Democracy, Elite-bias and Redistribution in Latin America.” Political Science Quarterly, vol.131, no.3, 2016.
- William Gochberg and Victor Menaldo. "The Resource Curse Puzzle Across Four Waves of Work." The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy, 2016, pp. 505-525.
- Victor Menaldo. The Institutions Curse: Natural Resources, Politics, and Development. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. "Capital in the Twenty-First-Century—in the Rest of the World." Annual Review of Political Science. Vol 19, 2016, pp. 1-18.
- Victor Menaldo. "The Fiscal Roots of Financial Underdevelopment." The American Journal of Political Science. vol. 60, Issue 2, 2016, pp.456-471.
- Lim, S., Menaldo, V. & Prakash, A. Foreign aid, economic globalization, and pollution. Policy Sci 48, 181–205 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-014-9205-6
- Menaldo, Victor and Daniel Yoo. "Democracy, Elite Bias, and Financial Development in Latin America." World Politics, vol. 67, no. 4, 2015, pp. 726-759.
- Victor Menaldo and Nora Webb Williams “Judicial Supremacy: Explaining False Starts and Surprising Successes." in How the Magna Carta Matters: Reflecting on the Legacy of the Great Charter, edited by James Melton and Robert Hazell. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Margaret Levi and Victor Menaldo. “Institutional Analysis in Historical Perspective." in Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions, edited by Jennifer Gandhi and Ruben Ruiz-Rufino, Routledge Press, 2015.
- Victor Menaldo. "The New Political Economy of Natural Resources in Latin America." Latin American Politics and Society. 57, no. 01 (2015): 163-173.
- Victor Menaldo and Aseem Prakash. “Empirical Strategies in International Development Research." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 33, no. 4, 2014, pp. 929-931.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. “Dealing with Dictators: Negotiated Democratization and the Fate of Outgoing Autocrats.” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 550–565, 2014.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. “Gaming Democracy: The Role of Elite Welfare in Democratic Transition” British Journal of Political Science, July, 575-603, 2014.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. “The Political Economy of Autocratic Constitutions.” In Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. "Dictators as Founding Fathers: The Role of Constitutions in Autocracies" Economics and Politics, vol. 24, no. 3, 2012, pp. 279-306.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. “If You’re Against Them You’re With Us: the Effect of Expropriation on Autocratic Survival” Comparative Political Studies 45, no. 8, 2012, pp. 973-1003.
- Victor Menaldo. “The Middle East and North Africa’s Resilient Monarchs” Journal of Politics, Vol. 74, no. 3, 2012, pp. 707-722.
- Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. "Coercive Capacity and the Prospects for Democratization." Comparative Politics, vol. 44, no. 2, 2012, pp.151-169.
- Victor Menaldo. “Natural Resources in Latin America: Neither Curse nor Blessing," In Oxford University Press Handbook of Latin American Political Economy. Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Stephen Haber and Victor Menaldo. “Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism? A Reappraisal of the Resource Curse.” American Political Science Review, vol. 105, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1-26.
- Victor Menaldo. Review of Falleti, T. G. “Decentralization and Subnational Politics in Latin America.” Comparative Political Studies 44, no. 5, 2011, pp. 628-632.
Research Advised
- Magistro, Beatrice. 2021. "The Effects of Financial and Economic Literacy on Individual Policy Preferences"
- Kevin Aslett. 2020. "The Effect of Economic Policies/Behavior on Contemporary Threats to Democracy"
- William Andrew Kidd Gochberg. 2020. "Socially Embedded Property Rights in Africa"
- David Neil Carlos Lopez. 2019. "State Building, Elite Ideology, and Mass Schooling: The Formation of Education Leviathans Since the Nineteenth Century"
- Nora Webb Williams. 2019. "Colonial Policy, Social Trust, and Economic Resilience: The Long-term Impacts of Imperial Russian Settlement in Southern Kazakhstan"
- Daniel Yoo. 2019. "Development Aid, Institutional Change, and Local Democracy: Investigating the Role and Impact of Elected Councils in Rural Indonesia"
- Jennifer Noveck. 2017. "Autocratic Brews: Small Firm Politics in China's Craft Brewing Industry"
Courses Taught
Spring 2025
Autumn 2024
Autumn 2023
Spring 2023
Autumn 2022
Spring 2022
Affiliations
Home Department
News & Events
Related News
- Prof. Victor Menaldo Interviewed on KOMO News, "Incoming Tariffs Shock Stock Market" (April 10, 2025)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on KUOW, "How Section 230 helped create the internet... and why it may go away" (April 1, 2025)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Los Angeles Times, "Opinion: What China’s DeepSeek breakthrough really means for the future of AI" (February 6, 2025)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Conversation, "How constitutional guardrails have always contained presidential ambitions" (January 16, 2025)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo Op-Ed In The Seattle Times, "The fallout for WA of Trump’s tariff plan" (December 13, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Axios, "Washington state had the smallest rightward shift in 2024" (December 2, 2024)
- Profs. Long, Lemieux and Menaldo on KOMO News Town Hall, "Trump 2.0 The Washington Impact" (November 27, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Columbian, "People over party: Reelected U.S. Rep. Perez bucks election trend with focus on working-class issues" (November 18, 2024)
- Profs. Victor Menaldo and Mark Alan Smith Quoted in Axios, "Why Washington was the only state to shift blue in 2024" (November 14, 2024)
- Profs. Victor Menaldo and James Long Interviewed for The Conversation, "‘Inflation is radioactive’: Trump’s victory is part of a global populist wave of voters throwing out incumbents " (November 12, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on KIRO News site, "Where did Democrats go wrong? Top lawmaker says party needs to ‘take a good hard look’" (November 8, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The UW Daily, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and online at KCBS (November 4, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo Opinion Piece in The Seattle Times, "Robust democracy’s checks and balances would stymie Trump" (November 1, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in UW News Interview, "Q&A: New book shows how innovation inequality fuels America’s political divide " (October 15, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Axios Seattle, "Why lying by politicians is generally legal" (September 27, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo and Grad Nicolas Wittstock in The Seattle Times, "Innovation inequality and the 2024 election: A deep-rooted divide" (August 13, 2024)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Washington Post, "Before Trump, here’s how some other countries prosecuted their ex-leaders" (April 16, 2024)
- Profs. Menaldo and Long in The Conversation, "Could Trump turn his politics of grievance into a get-out-of-jail card?" (August 4, 2023)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo quoted on NPR, "The White House and big tech companies release commitments on managing AI" (August 4, 2023)
- Profs. Long and Menaldo in The Seattle Times, "How have prosecutions of foreign leaders turned out? It’s complicated " (July 5, 2023)
- Watch on YouTube: Spring 2023 Faculty Panel, May 1st: “From Globalization to Deglobalization?” (May 3, 2023)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Seattle Times, "WA’s capital gains tax will have unintended consequences" (April 14, 2023)
- Profs. James Long and Victor Menaldo interviewed in UW News, "Beyond Trump — UW political scientists on the legacy of the indictment on the U.S. presidency " (April 10, 2023)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo, Prof. James D. Long, and Grad student Morgan Wack work cited in Reason, "Dump the Politicized Case Against Trump and Make Way for Serious Investigations" (April 10, 2023)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo quoted in three articles in The Washington Post, GeekWire, and The Conversation. (April 3, 2023)
- Spring 2023 Faculty Panel, May 1st: “From Globalization to Deglobalization?” (March 14, 2023)
- Winter 2023 Faculty Panel, February 27th: The Politics of Artificial Intelligence (December 19, 2022)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in a UW Impact Discussion Panel, "The Trickier Side of Free Speech" (October 14, 2022)
- With Trump’s role on Jan. 6 becoming clearer and potentially criminal, GOP voters are starting to look at different options by Victor Menaldo and James D. Long (July 14, 2022)
- Profs. Long, Smith and Menaldo on The Conversation, "Why nobody will ever agree on whether Covid lockdowns were worth it" (June 29, 2021)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Divided We Fall site, "In Defense of the Marketplace of Ideas" (June 29, 2021)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo interview with KBTC/KCTS, "Cancel Culture" (April 12, 2021)
- Antitrust in the crosshairs: How necessary is it to reform competition policy? (March 29, 2021)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on The Conversation, "Prosecuting ex-presidents for corruption is trending worldwide – but it’s not always greatfor democracy" (March 22, 2021)
- Biden Faces the World: American Foreign Policy in a post Trump era (March 11, 2021)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Venture Beat, "Breaking up Big Tech–A solution in search of a problem" (February 19, 2021)
- Profs. James Long and Victor Menaldo on Venture Beat, "From the election lie to GameStop: How to stop social media algorithms from hurting us" (February 9, 2021)
- Profs. James Long and Victor Menaldo in The Seattle Times, "Section 230: Friend, not foe, of free speech" (January 26, 2021)
- Political Economy Forum Podcast – “Free Speech on Social Media” – with Prof. Victor Menaldo (January 20, 2021)
- Profs. James D. Long and Victor Menaldo in The Conversation, "Why Trump’s challenges to democracy will be a big problem for Biden" (January 12, 2021)
- Profs. Victor Menaldo and James Long on the Neither Free Nor Fair? Podcast: "Insurrection, Sedition, Coup -- oh my!" (January 7, 2021)
- Political Economy Forum Podcast Available Now (January 4, 2021)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Inside Higher Ed, "The Many Faces of Mentorship" (December 11, 2020)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Areo: "Liberalism and the Threats It Faces" (October 14, 2020)
- Political Economy Forum: Neither Free Nor Fair? #3: “Presidential Debates--Special Crossover Episode!” (October 8, 2020)
- New UW Political Economy Forum Podcast Episode - Is Cancel Culture Threatening Free Speech? (September 1, 2020)
- KGMI Radio Interview with Prof. Victor Menaldo: Free Speech, Cancel Culture, and Liberal Democracy (August 19, 2020)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Seattle Times Opinion, "Is our cancel culture killing free speech?" (August 10, 2020)
- Prof. Aseem Prakash on Forbes, "Here’s Why Tech Platforms Might Need Regulation But Not Breaking Up" (June 19, 2020)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Seattle Times, "Dear Bernie Sanders: Sweden’s democratic socialism depends on robust capitalism" (March 11, 2020)
- Interview with Prof. Victor Menaldo about new book Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy (September 4, 2018)
- International Coverage of "Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy" by Professor Victor Menaldo (July 12, 2018)
- Professor Victor Menaldo inThe New York Times Opinion, "Why Are So Many Democracies Breaking Down?" (May 9, 2018)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Seattle Times, "Crony capitalism and protectionism are the despot’s way" (April 23, 2018)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo: How flawed constitutions undermine democracy (February 26, 2018)
- The Department in the News (June 28, 2017)
- Professor Victor Menaldo’s Research on Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes Cited in Washington Post (May 18, 2017)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo and Daniel Yoo's article Democracy, Elite-Bias, and Financial Development in Latin America to be published in October issue of World Politics (August 4, 2015)
- Victor Menaldo article most cited in the American Political Science Review in five years (April 30, 2015)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in the London School of Economics site, "Capitalism need not churn inexorably toward higher inequality; democracies can tame the disproportionate power of elites" (August 1, 2014)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on The Washington Post's Monkey Cage, "How democracies are gamed for power and profit: an addendum to Piketty" (June 3, 2014)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in The Seattle Times, "A Glimmer of Hope for Democracy in Egypt" (January 30, 2014)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo on Washington Post's The Monkey Cage, "Why Egypt's new constitution may not turn out as badly as you think" (January 16, 2014)
- Prof. Victor Menaldo in Foreign Policy, "South Africa, Unequal by Design" (January 3, 2014)
- 2013 Political Science News Summary (December 31, 2013)
- 2012 Political Science News Summary (December 31, 2012)
- 2011 Political Science News Summary (December 31, 2011)
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