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
Autumn 2021
Spring 2021
Affiliations
Home Department