Robert Kaufman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Political Science at Rutgers University. His most recent books are Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World (2021) and Dictators and Democrats: Masses, Elites, and Regime Change (2016), co-winner of the Best Book Prize awarded by the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association. Other books include Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe (2008), co-authored with Stephan Haggard. He is also co-author (with Stephan Haggard) of The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions, winner of the 1995 Luebbert Prize for the best book in comparative politics, awarded by the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, and he is co-editor (with Joan M. Nelson) of Crucial Needs, Weak Incentives: Social Sector Reform, Democratization, and Globalization in Latin America (2004).