Search
Search
Profile picture for user M. Steven Fish

M. Steven Fish

Professor
Email
CV
Current Status
Teaching
Phone
+1 510 643-1943
Office
744 Social Sciences Building
Office Hours
Tuesday 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Upcoming/Future Courses
Personal Statement

M. Steven Fish is a comparative political scientist who specializes in democracy and authoritarianism, religion and politics, and constitutional systems and national legislatures. He is the author of Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence (Oxford, 2011), which was selected for Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles, 2012: Top 25 Books. He is also author of Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics (Cambridge, 2005), which was the recipient of the Best Book Award of 2006, presented by the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association, and Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution (Princeton, 1995). He is coauthor of The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey (Cambridge, 2009) and Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (Princeton, 2001).

Fish writes and comments extensively on international affairs and the rising challenges to democracy in the United States and around the world. He appears as a commentator on the BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, CNN, CNA, and CNBC and has published commentary in the The American Interest, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, and Foreign Policy. He has served as an expert consultant to U.S. federal agencies and international organizations such as the European Commission for Democracy through Law.

Fish studied international relations, economics and history at Cornell and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies before receiving his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford. In addition to UC Berkeley, he has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and universities in Russia, Poland, China, and Indonesia. He served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia, and at the European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia. He has also been the recipient of the Distinguished Social Sciences Teaching Award of the College of Letters and Science at Berkeley.

Academic Subfields
Research Interests
Democracy
Political Regimes
Regime Change
Religion and Politics
Eurasia
Legislatures
Degrees
B.A. Cornell University
M.A. Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
Ph.D. Stanford University
Books

Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 408 pages. (Selected for Choice’s Outstanding Academic Titles, 2012: Top 25 Books)

The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey (coauthored with Matthew Kroenig).  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.  808 pages.

Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.  336 pages. (Recipient of the Best Book Award of 2006, presented by the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association)

Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (coauthored with Rishard D. Anderson, Stephen E. Hanson, and Philip G. Roeder). Princeton,NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.  216 pages.

Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution. Princeton,NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.  300 pages.

Articles

Selected Op-Ed Pieces

Teaching

PS 141A  -  Russian Politics (Syllabus)

PS 2  -  Introduction to Comparative Politics (Syllabus)

PS 191 - Global Crisis of Democracy (Syllabus)

PS 191 -  Foundations of Political Thought and Action (Syllabus)

PS 200B  -  Major Themes in Comparative Analysis: Research Design (Syllabus)