The Maxwell School >> Political Science >> Matt Cleary

About the Professor

Matt Cleary is an associate professor of political science in the Maxwell School.  He studies elections, democratization, democratic theory, and ethnic politics, with a geographical focus on Latin America.

Cleary has published work on democratic responsiveness in Mexico, and on the leftist electoral resurgence in Latin America.  In 2006 he  published Democracy and the Culture of Skepticism (with Susan C. Stokes), which uses evidence from Argentina and Mexico to argue that democracy functions better when citizens are skeptical towards government, rather than unconditionally trusting.  His book on local government in Mexico, The Sources of Democratic Responsiveness in Mexico (2010), has just been published by the University of Notre Dame Press.  He is now working on several projects related to the Latin American left, local autonomy in Mexican indigenous communities, and gender quotas in Latin American legislatures. 

To see Cleary's c.v. and information on his courses, click on the links to the left.