Marcus Kurtz, associate professor of political science, The Ohio State University
Kurtz has research and teaching interests in the areas of comparative politics, democratization, political economy, and development, with a focus on Latin America. He is currently working on a second book project that examines the socio-political foundations of state building and failure in four South American countries with a comparative extension to the Prussian case. Other ongoing research examines the causes and consequences of differing strategies of international economic integration in Latin America, the role of the state in economic development, the cross-national measurement of state capability or governance, as well as the effects of free market developmental strategies on the problem of democratic consolidation.