Gretchen Helmke is Professor of Political Science at University of Rochester. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2000. Her research focuses on political institutions, democratic consolidation and erosion, the rule of law, and Latin American politics. Her most recent book is Institutions on the Edge: The Origins and Consequences of Institutional Instability in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

She is one of the co-founders of Bright Line Watch, a non-partisan organization that brings together leading political scientists to monitor democratic practices in the United States from a comparative perspective. Bright Line Watch is supported by grants from the Democracy Fund and the Hewlett Foundation and has received media coverage from The New York Times, Washington Post, the Atlantic, Boston Globe, and Vox. 

Helmke 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 in Washington, D.C..

Helmke's other books include: 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. Her articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, 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. 
 
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331 Harkness Hall
Department of Political Science
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
​gretchen.helmke@rochester.edu
tel: (585) 275-4291
fax: (585) 271-1616

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