J.S. Maloy

Maloy’s teaching and research activities address overlooked but critical features of democratic regimes around the world, especially those involving the fit (or lack thereof) between ideologies and institutions. Using historical and theoretical perspectives, informed and supplemented by studies of how democratic politics actually operates, he finds that the empirical realities of inequality and oligarchy which other scholars have documented across the globe are often the product of deliberate institutional design. The appropriate meaning of the phrase “democratic reform” in our times must therefore be less about correcting abuses or turning over personnel than about re-evaluating purposes and redesigning institutions. Maloy’s previous research has emphasized in particular the oligarchic effects of periodic elections, which have displaced older, non-electoral forms of democratic accountability involving juries, audits, and impeachments. Despite bearing no grudge against the number two in general, he often finds himself, as an American citizen, directing his critical energies against two-house legislatures and two-party systems. (When public policy isn’t at stake, however, he very much enjoys watching two sports teams clash on the field of battle.)