Daniel Ziblatt

Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and director of Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He also leads a research group on democracy and democratic erosion at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center in Germany.

His research focuses on democracy, the political history of Europe, and democratic state-building. Ziblatt examines how democracies function, erode, and develop historically, with particular expertise in conservative parties' role in democratic development and contemporary threats to democratic institutions. His work bridges historical analysis with urgent contemporary concerns about democratic backsliding.

Ziblatt has received numerous prestigious awards including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023) and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (2025). His scholarship has been recognized with the Woodrow Wilson Prize from the American Political Science Association and the Barrington Moore Prize from the American Sociological Association for 'Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy.' 'How Democracies Die' won the Goldsmith Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize.

As a public intellectual, Ziblatt regularly contributes to major publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Die Zeit, bringing academic insights on democracy to broader audiences. His recent work analyzes the relationship between political norms, institutional design, and democratic survival in the face of authoritarian challenges.