Joe Wright

Joe Wright is a Professor of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University where he also serves as co-Director of the Global and International Studies (GLIS) program. Previously, he held the Jeffrey L. and Sharon D. Hyde Early Career Professorship. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. from UCLA, a post-doctoral research associate position at Princeton University, and a visiting faculty fellowship at the University of Notre Dame. In 2016, he was a visiting scholar at Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA).

Wright's research focuses on authoritarian regimes, dictatorships, and democratic erosion. His work examines how foreign policy tools affect autocratic survival, how dictatorships function, and how remittances impact authoritarian rule. He has authored multiple influential books in the field of comparative politics and has published in top political science journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Foreign Affairs, and the Journal of Democracy.

His recent publications analyze contemporary threats to democracy, particularly examining how political leaders consolidate power through security force personalization, bureaucratic restructuring, and targeting of former officials. These works connect current U.S. political developments with global patterns of authoritarian consolidation.

Wright has received significant recognition for his scholarship, including the 2017 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research for his book Foreign Pressure and the Politics of Autocratic Survival. His research has been funded by prestigious organizations including the National Science Foundation and the Minerva Research Initiative.

As an active scholar, Wright engages with contemporary political issues through media appearances and public scholarship, providing expert analysis on the erosion of democratic norms and the rise of authoritarian practices in established democracies.