CDDRL News
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4-minute read]
At Stanford's 2025 Reunion weekend, scholars from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies shared insights into what can be done to address climate change, AI competition with China, Middle East security, democratic backsliding, and the war in Ukraine.
Political scientists emphasize need for pro-democracy coalitions at launch of Democracy Action Lab
Political science scholars discussed strengthening pro-democracy coalitions in a Wednesday event marking the launch of CDDRL’s new Democracy Action Lab.
In an Israel Insights webinar, Professor Azar Gat examined how unresolved questions of historical legitimacy have shaped decades of failed negotiations.
By combining rigorous research with practitioner collaborations, the Democracy Action Lab at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law turns ideas into action.
UC Davis Political Scientist Lauren Young examines why authoritarian incumbents use electoral repression selectively, why they often outsource it, and how elite cohesion shapes its organization, targeting, and effectiveness.
Hoover scholar Larry Diamond calls for respect, collaboration, and a crackdown on young people’s smartphones.
Exploring great power competition, Cold War lessons, and the future of U.S. foreign policy with FSI Director and former U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul.
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4-minute read]
Can financial literacy shape climate beliefs? Saumitra Jha’s latest study suggests it can — and across party lines.
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4-minute read]
In the second annual “Reimagining Democracy” webinar series, professor Francis Fukuyama dove into the root causes of democracy’s current crisis. He discussed how declining trust, civic disengagement among youth, and other societal challenges have weakened democratic systems and what actions are needed to revive them.
Professor Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, shares insights from his new book on Cold War lessons and the autocracy-democracy struggle.
The program will run from Sunday, July 19, to Friday, August 7, 2026. Applications are due by 11:59 pm PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026.
CDDRL postdoctoral scholar Maria Nagawa examines how foreign aid projects influence bureaucrats’ incentives, effort, and the capacity of bureaucratic institutions.
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4-minute read]
FSI senior fellow Larry Diamond ’74 M.A.’78 PhD ’80 encourages the community to engage in discourse, especially with those whom we disagree.
The award recognizes their book, “Propaganda in Autocracies” (Cambridge University Press, 2023), as the best book in political economy published in the past three years.
In Nigeria, women are far less likely than men to attend meetings or contact leaders. Claire Adida’s research reveals interventions that make a difference.
Golden received the 2025 Lijphart/Przeworski/Verba Best Dataset Award for her “Global Legislator Database,” a cross-national dataset on the characteristics of 19,704 national parliamentarians in 97 of the world's 103 electoral democracies.
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4-minute read]
The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law welcomes applications from pre-doctoral students at the write-up stage and from post-doctoral scholars working in any of the four program areas of democracy, development, evaluating the efficacy of democracy promotion, and rule of law.
A new journal explores the legal landscape of outer space. “On the West Coast, and especially in Silicon Valley, space is happening all around us … Stanford is uniquely positioned to bring law into that conversation.” Stanford Law School lecturer Erik Jensen and Dinsha Mistree, an affiliate of the Neukom Center for the Rule of Law and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, are serving as advisors to the Stanford Space Law Society.
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [3.5-minute read]
We are delighted to welcome Oliver Kaplan, Sanjeev Khagram, and Denis Morozov to our scholarly community.