Rasma Karklins' Biography

Rasma Karklins is Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Visiting Professor at the University of Latvia. Her most recent book is  The System Made Me Do It: Corruption in Post-Communist Societies (M.E. Sharpe, 2005.) As a scholar specializing in comparative politics Karklins focuses on multiple societies. Her first book Ethnic Relations in the USSR won the Ralph E. Bunche award of the American Political Science Association for the “best book in political science on cultural pluralism.” She has published widely on comparative ethnopolitics, transitions to democracy, and now corruption. Professor Karklins received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago.

Fields of Interest:

Comparative Politics, Soviet/Russian and East European Politics, Ethnic Relations, Political Corruption

Selected Publications:

The System Made Me Do It: Corruption in the Post-communist Region; New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2005

Ethnic Politics and Transition to Democracy: USSR/Latvia, Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Ethnic Relations in the USSR: The Perspective from Below, Boston and London: Allen & Unwin, 1986. Paperback Unwin & Hyman, 1988.

"The Decision Calculus of Protesters and Regimes: Eastern Europe 1989", Journal of Politics, 1993 (with Roger Petersen).

"Explaining Regime Change in the USSR," Europe-Asia Studies (formerly Soviet Studies), 46,1 (January 1994): 29-45.

"Ethnopluralism: Panacea for East Central Europe?" Nationalities Papers, vol. 28, no. 2 (June 2000): 219-241

Current Research Areas:

Comparative health care systems
Politics of USSR and successor states
East European politics
Transitions to democracy
Politics of public bureaucracy
Collective action
International relations

Selected Activities and Honors:

2004-05 Ed Hewett Public Policy Fellow, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research.

Visiting Member, School of Social Sciences , Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, 2002-03

Participant, "Honesty and Trust Project," Collegium Budapest, Institute for Advanced Study, Budapest, Hungary, 2001-2003

US Institute of Peace grant, 1997-98.

Scholar in Residence, Rockefeller Center, Bellagio, Italy, March 1996

International Research and Exchanges Board grant 1995-96

President,1994-96, Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies

Fulbright Lectureship 1993

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant for Research and Writing, 1991-92

Foreign Member, Academy of Sciences of Latvia, elected November 24, 1992

Moscow State University, Senior Scholars Exchange, MUCIA, October 1988

American Political Science Association Ralph J. Bunche Award "for the best scholarly work in political science exploring the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism" for the book Ethnic Relations in the USSR, 1987