Gretchen Helmke is the Thomas H. Jackson Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Rochester, where she also serves as the Faculty Director for the University of Rochester's Democracy Center. Helmke is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow.
Helmke’s research spans political institutions, judicial politics and the rule of law, informal institutions and norms, and democratic erosion in Latin America and the United States. Her most recent article, "Defining and Measuring Democratic Norms" (co-authored with Josiah Rath) is forthcoming in the Annual Review of Political Science.
Her current book project entitled, Upending Impunity: Corruption, Competition, and Selective Accountability under Democracy, leverages experiences from presidential systems around the world to assess the political factors underlying the prosecution of democratically-elected leaders for corruption, and analyzes the tradeoffs that such prosecutions carry for democracy and the rule of law in the United States and beyond.
She is a founding member of Bright Line Watch, a non-partisan group of scholars that monitors threats to democracy in the United States. Helmke received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2000. She has previously taught at the University of Notre Dame, and has received fellowships from the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Weatherhead Center at Harvard University, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Helmke's books include: Institutions on the Edge: The Origins and Consequences of Institutional Instability in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Courts in Latin America, co-edited with Julio Rios-Figueroa (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Courts Under Constraints: Judges, Generals, and Presidents in Argentina (Cambridge University Press 2005), and Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America (Johns Hopkins University Press 2006), co-edited with Steven Levitsky. She has published articles in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Law and Courts, Comparative Politics, Desarollo Economico, Annual Review of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Perspectives on Politics, American Journal of Political Science, and Quarterly Journal of Political Science.
331 Harkness Hall
Department of Political Science
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
[email protected]
tel: (585) 275-4291
fax: (585) 271-1616
Helmke’s research spans political institutions, judicial politics and the rule of law, informal institutions and norms, and democratic erosion in Latin America and the United States. Her most recent article, "Defining and Measuring Democratic Norms" (co-authored with Josiah Rath) is forthcoming in the Annual Review of Political Science.
Her current book project entitled, Upending Impunity: Corruption, Competition, and Selective Accountability under Democracy, leverages experiences from presidential systems around the world to assess the political factors underlying the prosecution of democratically-elected leaders for corruption, and analyzes the tradeoffs that such prosecutions carry for democracy and the rule of law in the United States and beyond.
She is a founding member of Bright Line Watch, a non-partisan group of scholars that monitors threats to democracy in the United States. Helmke received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2000. She has previously taught at the University of Notre Dame, and has received fellowships from the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Weatherhead Center at Harvard University, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Helmke's books include: Institutions on the Edge: The Origins and Consequences of Institutional Instability in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Courts in Latin America, co-edited with Julio Rios-Figueroa (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Courts Under Constraints: Judges, Generals, and Presidents in Argentina (Cambridge University Press 2005), and Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America (Johns Hopkins University Press 2006), co-edited with Steven Levitsky. She has published articles in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Law and Courts, Comparative Politics, Desarollo Economico, Annual Review of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Perspectives on Politics, American Journal of Political Science, and Quarterly Journal of Political Science.
331 Harkness Hall
Department of Political Science
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
[email protected]
tel: (585) 275-4291
fax: (585) 271-1616