Jacob Grumbach

Jacob (Jake) Grumbach is an Associate Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he held an associate professorship in political science at the University of Washington and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Democratic Politics.

Research Interests: Grumbach's work focuses on the political economy of the United States, with specific attention to democratic institutions, labor dynamics, federalism, racial and economic inequality, and quantitative research methods. His landmark book Laboratories Against Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2022) examines how national partisan conflicts have transformed state-level politics, leading to policy divergence and democratic backsliding in Republican-controlled states.

Education:

• B.A., Columbia University

Scientific Recognition:

• Laboratories Against Democracy named one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022

Additional Contributions: Grumbach has developed a State Democracy Index to measure democratic performance across U.S. states, revealing systematic erosion of democratic norms in Republican-controlled regions. His research connects state-level policy shifts to national partisan strategies, media decline, and corporate influence.