Steven Fish

Last updated
M. Steven Fish
MS Fish 4.jpg
BornAugust 3, 1962
Alma materStanford University (PhD), Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (MA), Cornell University (BA)
OccupationPolitical Scientist
EmployerUC Berkeley
Known forauthoritarianism and democracy, postcommunist countries, legislatures and constitutional systems, economic reform, religion and politics

Michael Steven Fish (born August 3, 1962) is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. [1] His research interests include democracy, [2] [3] authoritarianism, [4] postcommunist countries, [5] legislatures and constitutional systems, [6] economic reform, and religion and politics. [7]

Contents

Fish writes and comments extensively on international affairs and the rising challenges to democracy in the United States and around the world. He is a commentator in the media, including BBC World News, CNN, [8] and other major networks, and has published in The New York Times [9] , The Washington Post [10] , Los Angeles Times [11] , The American Interest [12] , The Daily Beast [13] , Slate, [14] and Foreign Policy [15] .

He studied international relations, economics and history at Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Fish received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford in 1993. In addition to UC Berkeley, Fish has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Airlangga University in Indonesia and the European University at St. Petersburg in Russia.

Scholarship

Fish's most recent book, Comeback: Routing Trumpism, Reclaiming the Nation, and Restoring Democracy’s Edge (2024), [16] examines the causes of democracy’s current crisis in America and proposes a new approach to campaign messaging for Democrats. [17]

In Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence (2011), [18] Fish tests a range of notions about Muslims and their political orientations. [19] He finds little support for many prevailing stereotypes, [20] including the view that Muslims are committed to fusing religious and political authority and are more prone to violence. [21] He also finds that homicide rates and class-based inequalities are generally lower in predominantly Muslim societies. [22]

Fish’s work also includes research on legislatures and their role in democratic governance. His coauthored book, The Handbook of National Legislatures (2009), [23] measures the powers of the national legislature in every country in the world. [24] He served as the Project Manager for the Legislatures section of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project. In an article, “Stronger Legislatures, Stronger Democracies” (2006) he argued that vesting substantial power in national legislatures is vital to sustaining democratic regimes. [25]

In Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics (2005), [26] Fish investigated the demise of Russia’s democratic experiment in the 21st century. [27] [28] He argued that Russian democrats’ failure to build a strong civil society, along with flaws in their economic reform program, Russia’s hydrocarbons-based economy, and the country’s “superpresidential” constitution paved the way for the resurrection of autocracy under Vladimir Putin. [29]

Fish’s earlier work focused on Russia’s democratization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution (1995), [30] which was based on two years of fieldwork in Russia during the late 1980s and early 1990s, [31] Fish argued that Russia’s democratic breakthrough, while momentous and impressive, might prove short-lived given the lack of emergence of a realm of robust civil society organizations. [32] [33]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Op-eds and feature articles

Related Research Articles

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Regime change is the partly forcible or coercive replacement of one government regime with another. Regime change may replace all or part of the state's most critical leadership system, administrative apparatus, or bureaucracy. Regime change may occur through domestic processes, such as revolution, coup, or reconstruction of government following state failure or civil war. It can also be imposed on a country by foreign actors through invasion, overt or covert interventions, or coercive diplomacy. Regime change may entail the construction of new institutions, the restoration of old institutions, and the promotion of new ideologies.

In political science, a political system means the form of political organization that can be observed, recognised or otherwise declared by a society or state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratization</span> Society becoming more democratic

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliott Abrams</span> American politician and lawyer (born 1948)

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Political polarization is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes. Scholars distinguish between ideological polarization and affective polarization.

The term "illiberal democracy" describes a governing system that hides its "nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures". There is a lack of consensus among experts about the exact definition of illiberal democracy, but it is important to have a term to recognize that some governments attempt to look like democracies while suppressing opposing views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-coup</span> Elected leader illegally maintaining or increasing power

A self-coup, also called an autocoup or coup from the top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power through illegal means through the actions of themselves and/or their supporters. The leader may dissolve or render powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assume extraordinary powers. Other measures may include annulling the nation's constitution, suspending civil courts, and having the head of government assume dictatorial powers.

Matthew Søberg Shugart is an American political scientist. He is a Distinguished Professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. He is also an Affiliated Professor at the University of Haifa. Shugart specializes in electoral systems, party systems, and the design of political institutions, primarily through empirical studies of political systems across large numbers of countries. Shugart is also an orchardist, and runs the Fruits and Votes blog on electoral systems and fruit growing.

Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military. States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have some times been characterized as "hybrid democracies", "hybrid regimes" or "competitive authoritarian" states.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Totalitarian architecture</span> Architecture of totalitarian states

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An audience cost, in international relations theory, is the domestic political cost that leaders incur from their constituency if they escalate a foreign policy crisis and are then seen as backing down. It is considered to be one of the potential mechanisms for democratic peace theory. It is associated with rational choice scholarship in international relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic backsliding</span> National decline in democracy

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Constitutional hardball is the exploitation of procedures, laws and institutions by political actors for partisan gain in ways which violate pre-established norms and push the bounds of legality. Legal scholars and political scientists have characterized constitutional hardball as a threat to democracy, because it undermines shared understanding of democratic norms and undermines the expectation that the other side will comply with democratic norms. As a result, the use of constitutional hardball by one side of partisans encourages other partisans to respond in similar fashion.

Dov Waxman is an author, academic and commentator. He is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Israel Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the director of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic backsliding in the United States</span> Periods of democratic decline in the U.S.

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References

  1. "M. Steven Fish". University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  2. Kagan, Robert (2019-03-14). "Opinion: The strongmen are back. And we have no idea how to confront them". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  3. Rosenberg, Jacob (2020-11-13). "Is This a Coup? We Asked a Variety of Humane, Thoughtful People and Also Henry Kissinger". Mother Jones Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  4. Brooks, David (2018-04-02). "Opinion | Vladimir Putin, the Most Influential Man in the World". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  5. Menarndt, Aubrey (2019-11-07). "Analysis | In Mongolia, proposed legislation endangers civil society". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  6. UNDP (2006). "Parliaments, Crisis Prevention and Recovery: Guidelines for the International Community" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme.
  7. Isquith, Elias (2015-01-22). "New Atheists are wrong about Islam. Here's how data proves it". Salon. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  8. Fish, M. Steven (2014-07-23). "Will sanctions work with Putin?". CNN. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  9. Fish, M. Steven (2024-05-06). "Opinion | Trump Knows Dominance Wins. Someone Tell Democrats". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  10. "To establish the rule of law, cut off elites' purses and power. Here's how". Washington Post. 2021-12-07. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  11. Fish, M. Steven (2003-10-12). "Repressing Women, Repressing Democracy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  12. "M. Steven Fish". The American Interest. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  13. Fish, M. Steven (2015-02-15). "No, Islam Isn't Inherently Violent, And The Math Proves It". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  14. Fish, M. Steven; Abrams, Neil A.; Aghaie, Laila M. (2020-07-03). "Make Liberalism Great Again". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  15. Fish, Neil A. Abrams, M. Steven (2024-05-16). "Dethroning Ukraine's Oligarchs: A How-To Guide". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2024-05-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. Fish, M. Steven; Aghaie, Laila M. (2024). Comeback: routing trumpism, reclaiming the nation, and restoring democracy's edge. Irvington: Rivertowns Books. ISBN   978-1-953943-53-8.
  17. Glenn C. Altschuler, opinion contributor (2024-05-05). "How using 'high dominance' rhetoric can help Biden beat Trump". The Hill. Retrieved 2024-05-09.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  18. Kurzman, Charles (2011). "Review of Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence". Review of Middle East Studies. 45 (2): 225–227. doi:10.1017/S2151348100002561. ISSN   2151-3481. JSTOR   41496376.
  19. Munson, Ziad (2013). "Review of Are Muslims Distinctive?: A Look at the Evidence". Contemporary Sociology. 42 (1): 80–81. doi:10.1177/0094306112468721k. ISSN   0094-3061. JSTOR   41722808.
  20. Brown, L. Carl (2011-09-01). "Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence". Foreign Affairs. Vol. 90, no. 5. ISSN   0015-7120 . Retrieved 2024-05-11.
  21. Isquith, Elias (2015-01-22). "New Atheists are wrong about Islam. Here's how data proves it". Salon. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
  22. Beauchamp, Zack (2015-01-30). "This study obliterates the myth that Muslims are more violent". Vox. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
  23. Desposato, Scott (2012). "Review of The Handbook of National Legislatures". Legislative Studies Quarterly. 37 (3): 389–396. doi:10.1111/j.1939-9162.2012.00052.x. ISSN   0362-9805. JSTOR   24894380.
  24. Melia, Thomas O. (2010). "What Makes Legislatures Strong?". Journal of Democracy. 21 (2): 166–170. doi:10.1353/jod.0.0169. ISSN   1086-3214.
  25. Fish, M. Steven (Michael Steven) (2006). "Stronger Legislatures, Stronger Democracies". Journal of Democracy. 17 (1): 5–20. doi:10.1353/jod.2006.0008. ISSN   1086-3214.
  26. "Choice Reviews | Login". choicereviews.org. doi:10.5860/choice.43-4903 (inactive 1 February 2025). Retrieved 2024-05-16.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2025 (link)
  27. Kubicek, Paul (2006). "Review of Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics". Perspectives on Politics. 4 (2): 401–402. doi:10.1017/S1537592706510278 (inactive 1 February 2025). ISSN   1537-5927. JSTOR   3688304.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2025 (link)
  28. Sakwa, Richard (2008). Colton, Timothy J.; McFaul, Michael; Fish, M. Steven; Stoner-Weiss, Kathryn; Petro, Nicolai; Pravda, Alex (eds.). "Two Camps? The Struggle to Understand Contemporary Russia". Comparative Politics. 40 (4): 481–499. doi:10.5129/001041508X12911362383435. ISSN   0010-4159. JSTOR   20434097.
  29. Legvold, Robert (2006). "Review of Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics". Foreign Affairs. 85 (1): 158–159. doi:10.2307/20031880. ISSN   0015-7120. JSTOR   20031880.
  30. "Choice Reviews | Login". choicereviews.org. doi:10.5860/choice.33-1154 (inactive 1 February 2025). Retrieved 2024-05-16.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2025 (link)
  31. Colton, Timothy J. (1996). "Review of Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution". The Russian Review. 55 (4): 724–725. doi:10.2307/131898. ISSN   0036-0341. JSTOR   131898.
  32. Tismaneanu, Vladimir (1995). "Review of Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution". The American Political Science Review. 89 (4): 1051–1052. doi:10.2307/2082572. ISSN   0003-0554. JSTOR   2082572.
  33. Roeder, Philip G. (1995). "Review of Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution". Political Science Quarterly. 110 (3): 487–488. doi:10.2307/2152595. ISSN   0032-3195. JSTOR   2152595.