Democracy Studies at UC Irvine integrates American and comparative politics in the study of both established and emerging democracies.  UCI has become one of the leading places in the world to study empirical democratic theory.  Sociology faculty who are very active in these areas include Edward Amenta, Nina Bandelj, Frank D. Bean, Catherine Bolzendahl, David Frank, Wang Feng, Ann Hironaka, David Meyer, Francesca Polletta, Belinda Robnett-Olsen, David Smith, David Snow, Judith Stepan-Norris, Evan Schofer, and Yang Su.  They are joined by nineteen faculty from Political Science (Matthew Beckmann, Russell Dalton, Martha Feldman, Louis DeSipio, Bernard Grofman, Marek Kaminski, Diana Kapiszewski, Claire Kim, Anthony McGann, Mark Petracca, Charles "Tony" Smith, Dorothy Solinger, Rein Taagepera, William R. Schonfeld, Katherine Tate, Yuliya Tverdova, Martin Wattenberg, and Carole Uhlaner), and four faculty from Economics (Linda Cohen, Amihai Glazer, Stergios Skaperdas, and Donald Saari).  The faculty teach courses and carry out research in democracy studies administered under the umbrella of the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD). 

The courses are organized in five areas: democratic transitions and consolidation, institutional mechanisms for democratic governance, race and ethnicity, political economy and the economics of governance, and social movements and collective action.  The program in Democracy Studies also involves the research and participation conference participation of Sociology and Political Science faculty in other University of California departments.

For more information on graduate training with a focus on Democracy studies and fellowship opportunities for graduate students in this area click here.