David Szakonyi
David Szakonyi
Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
Full-time Faculty
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David Szakonyi is Associate Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, co-Director of PONARS Eurasia, and co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Data Collective. His academic research focuses on corruption, clientelism, and political economy in Russia, Western Europe, and the United States. His most recent book -- Politics for Profit: Business, Elections, and Policymaking in Russia (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, 2020) -- examines why businesspeople run for political office and how their firms benefit. He has also led numerous investigations into political corruption and opacity in the private equity and real estate industries published in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, the Daily Beast, and the Miami Herald, among other outlets. He received his PhD in political science from Columbia University and his BA from the University of Virginia.
Political economy; business-government relations; post-Soviet politics; corruption; authoritarianism; clientelism
PhD, Columbia University, 2016
David Szakonyi. 2021. “Private Sector Policymaking: Business Background and Politicians’ Behavior in Office.” Journal of Politics.
Timothy Frye, Ora John Reuter, and David Szakonyi. 2019. “Vote Brokers, Clientelist Appeals, and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Russia and Venezuela.” World Politics 71(4), 710-746.
David Szakonyi. 2019. “Princelings in the Private Sector: The Value of Nepotism.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 14(4), 349-381.
Ora John Reuter and David Szakonyi. 2019. “Elite Defection under Autocracy: Evidence from Russia.” American Political Science Review 113(2), 552-568.
David Szakonyi. 2018. “Businesspeople in Elected Office: Identifying Private Benefits from Firm-Level Returns.” American Political Science Review. 112 (2), 322-338.
Timothy Frye, Ora John Reuter, and David Szakonyi. 2018. “Hitting Them with Carrots: Voter Intimidation and Vote Buying In Russia.” British Journal of Political Science. 49 (3), 857-881.