Political Scientist Margaret Levi Joins CDDRL
Levi, whose research focuses on how to improve citizen confidence in governmental and organizational leadership, has been appointed a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) is pleased to announce that Margaret Levi, professor of Political Science, has joined the Center’s faculty as a newly appointed Senior Fellow at FSI effective September 1, 2022.
Levi most recently served as the Sara Miller McCune Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), a position she held for more than eight years. “Margaret Levi has been a magnificent director, reinvigorating and reimagining CASBS while retaining its best features. She is an exceptional scholar of leadership, and has put those lessons into practice with ease and wit,” shared her successor Woody Powell.
At CDDRL, Levi’s research will focus on how to improve citizen confidence in governmental and organizational leadership. She is also co-authoring a book with Tim Besley and Pablo Beramendi on the concept of and variation in political equality in democracies across time and place. They investigate participation, representation, and policy responsiveness and the trade-offs each generates in the effort to establish meaningful equal consideration and, thus, political equality. They aim to answer the question: What would it mean to live in a community of political equals?
“Margaret Levi is a trailblazer in her field and it is an honor to have her join our intellectual community at CDDRL,” shared Mosbacher Director Kathryn Stoner. “Her work on comparative political economy, labor politics, and trustworthy governance is a welcome addition to the Center’s expanding research agenda.”
Hakeem Jefferson, an affiliated scholar at CDDRL and a 2021-22 CASBS fellow, also shared on Twitter that he has “never met a scholar quite like Margaret Levi,” adding that “her range is incredible.”
In addition to her new appointment with FSI, Levi is currently a faculty fellow at CASBS and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, co-director of the Stanford Ethics, Society and Technology Hub, and the Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies at the University of Washington. She is the winner of the 2019 Johan Skytte Prize and the 2020 Falling Walls Breakthrough. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society and served as president of the American Political Science Association.
“Margaret Levi is an esteemed scholar and innovative researcher,” said FSI Director Michael McFaul. “FSI is very fortunate to welcome her as a senior fellow as she continues to pursue her cutting-edge research.”
The most recent of her many books are In the Interest of Others (Princeton, 2013), co-authored with John Ahlquist, and A Moral Political Economy: Present, Past, Future (Cambridge University Press, 2021), co-authored with Federica Carugati. She writes about what makes for trustworthy governance in states and organizations and what evokes citizen compliance, consent, and dissent.
“I am thrilled to be part of this legendary center whose interests and commitments so overlap with mine,” shared Levi. “I have a lot left to learn, and these are just the people from whose wisdom I hope to benefit.”
