David Stasavage

David Stasavage is the Dean for the Social Sciences and the Julius Silver Professor in NYU’s Department of Politics and an Affiliated Professor in NYU’s School of Law. He is the author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today, published by Princeton University Press in June 2020. This book provides a new understanding of early democracy in multiple world regions; it explains the survival in Europe and disappearance in China and the Middle East; and it then traces the long evolution of modern democracy while highlighting its internal tensions. Exploring the deep history of democracy, both early and modern, can teach us much about our current anxieties. David is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has also authored several previous books including Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe (Princeton, 2016) and States of Credit: Size, Power, and the Development of European Polities (Princeton 2011)

Education

• PhD, Harvard University Department of Government, 1995
• BA, Cornell University, 1989

Honors and Activities

• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2015
• Michael Wallerstein Award for “Was Weber Right? The Role of Urban Autonomy in Europe’s Rise.”, American Political Science Association, Political Economy Section, 2015
• Best Book Award for States of Credit: Size, Power, and the Development of European Polities, American Political Science Association, Section on European Politics and Society, 2012
• Honorable Mention for the William H. Riker Book Award for States of Credit: Size, Power, and the Development of European Polities, American Political Science Association, Political Economy Section, 2012
• Michael Wallerstein Award for “The Conscription of Wealth: Mass Warfare and the Demand for Progressive Taxation.”, American Political Science Association, Political Economy Section, 2012
• Lawrence Longley Award for “When Distance Mattered: Geographic Scale and the Development of European Representative Assemblies”, American Political Science Association, Section on Representation and Electoral Systems, 2011
• Franklin L. Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Award for “Institutions, Partisanship, and Inequality in the Long Run”, best paper presented, across all fields., American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, 2007

Publications

BOOKS

• The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today (Princeton University Press, 2020)
• Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe (Princeton University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation, 2016) (with Ken Scheve)

ARTICLES

• "Wealth Inequality and Democracy," 20 Annual Review of Political Science (2017) (with Ken Scheve)
• "Representation and Consent: Why They Arose in Europe and Not Elsewhere," 19 Annual Review of Political Science 145 (2016)
• "What We Can Learn From the Early History of Sovereign Debt?," 59 Explorations in Economic History 1 (2016)
• "Technology and the Era of the Mass Army," 74 449 (2014) (with Massimiliano Onorato and Ken Scheve)
• "Was Weber Right? The Role of Urban Autonomy in Europe’s Rise," 108 American Political Science Review 337 (2014)