Henry Thomson is an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the political economy of authoritarianism and democratization. He has a special interest in the role that agriculture plays in processes of development and democratization. He has published a book and articles on variation in agricultural policy across political regime type and the role of landholding inequality in promoting civil conflict and authoritarian repression. He is also interested in collective mobilization and repression under authoritarian regimes, and is currently working on a comparative project comparing the size and activities of secret police agencies across communist East and Central Europe from 1945-1989.
From 2014-2017, he was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford; has been a DAAD Fellow in Berlin; a Visiting Fellow at Australian National University; and a Visiting Fellow at the Mercatus Center in Arlington, VA. His doctoral dissertation won the 2015 Juan Linz Prize for the Best Dissertation in the Comparative Study of Democratization from the American Political Science Association and his 2016 article on landholding inequality and civil conflict won the Best Paper in International Relations Award from the Midwest Political Science Association. He teaches classes in Comparative Politics, Political Economy and International Relations.
"Authoritarian Repression and Electoral Opposition: Mobilization Under Germany’s Antisocialist Law" in Comparative Politics, forthcoming.
"Group Organization, Elections and Urban Social Disorder in the Developing World" (with Henrik Urdal, Halvard Buhaug and Elisabeth Rosvold) in Democratization, forthcoming.
2021. "Agricultural Mechanization, Moore's Thesis and Rural Elites' Attitudes Towards Democracy in Asia" (with David Samuels) in Taiwan Journal of Democracy. Forthcoming.
2021. "Lord, Peasant... and Tractor? Agricultural Mechanization, Moore's Thesis and the Emergence of Democracy" (with David Samuels) in Perspectives on Politics. Forthcoming.
2020. "The Authoritarian Governor's Dilemma: Controlling the Secret Police in Socialist Poland and East Germany" in Abbott, Zangl, Snidal and Genschel (Eds.), The Governor's Dilemma: Indirect Governance Beyond Principals and Agents (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
2019. Food and Power: Regime Type, Agricultural Policy and Political Stability (New York: Cambridge University Press).
2019. "Conflict Termination, Signals of State Weakness and Violent Urban Social Disorder in the Developing World." in Third World Thematics 4(2-3): 94-113.
2018. “Grievances, Mobilization and Mass Opposition to Authoritarian Regimes: A Sub National Analysis of East Germany’s 1953 Abbreviated Revolution.” In Comparative Political Studies 51(12): 1594-1627.
2017. “Food and Power: Agricultural Policy Under Democracy and Dictatorship.” In Comparative Politics 49(2):273-293.
2017. “Repression, Redistribution and the Problem of Authoritarian Control: Responses to the 17 June Uprising in Socialist East Germany.” In East European Politics & Societies 31(1): 68-92.
2016. “Rural Grievances, Landholding Inequality and Civil Conflict.” In International Studies Quarterly 60(3):511-519. Winner, best paper in International Relations, MPSA 2016.
2015. “Landholding Inequality, Political Strategy, and Authoritarian Repression: Structure and Agency in Bismarck’s ‘Second Founding’ of the German Empire.” In Studies in Comparative International Development 50(1):73-97.
2013. “Universal, Unequal Suffrage: Authoritarian Vote-Seat Malapportionment in the1907 Austrian Electoral Reform.” In Marija Wakounig and Markus P. Beham (eds.), Transgressing Boundaries: Humanities in Flux (Vienna: LIT Verlag).
Spring 2022 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 493 | Honors Thesis |
Fall 2021 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 351 | Democratization |
POS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
POS 493 | Honors Thesis |
POS 503 | Empirical Political Inquiry |
Spring 2021 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 351 | Democratization |
POS 485 | Political Economy |
Fall 2020 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
POS 493 | Honors Thesis |
POS 503 | Empirical Political Inquiry |
Spring 2020 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 586 | Intl Political Economy |
Fall 2019 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 486 | Internatl Political Economy |
POS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
POS 493 | Honors Thesis |
POS 503 | Empirical Political Inquiry |
Spring 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
POS 485 | Political Economy |
Fall 2018 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 486 | Internatl Political Economy |
POS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
POS 586 | Intl Political Economy |
Spring 2018 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 485 | Political Economy |
Fall 2017 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
POS 486 | Internatl Political Economy |