The Department of Political Science celebrates newest inductee, Professor Lucan Way, to the Royal Society of Canada.
One of the most prestigious academic honours in Canada, Fellows and College Members are recognized for exceptional research and academic contributions. After rigorous evaluation and review of their accomplishments, leading individuals are elected to one of the Society鈥檚 three Academies 鈥 the Academy of Arts and Humanities; the Academy of Social Sciences; and the Academy of Science. There are currently 2,524 Fellows. The RSC recognizes leaders in order to help them build a better future in Canada and around the world.
Research
Cited more than fifteen thousand times, Way鈥檚 research focuses on global patterns of democracy and dictatorship. His most recent book (with Steven Levitsky), Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism (Princeton University Press, 2022) provides a comparative historical explanation for the extraordinary durability of autocracies (China, Cuba, USSR) born of violent social revolution. The book was one of TIME magazine鈥檚 33 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2022 and has been featured on CBC鈥檚 鈥淭he Current,鈥 as well as in The Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. Way鈥檚 solo-authored book, Pluralism by Default: Weak Autocrats and the Rise of Competitive Politics (Johns Hopkins, 2015), examines the sources of political competition in the former Soviet Union. Way argues that pluralism in the developing world often emerges out of authoritarian weakness: governments are too fragmented and states too weak to monopolize political control. His first book, Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (with Steven Levitsky), was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press. Way鈥檚 work on competitive authoritarianism helped stimulate new and wide-ranging research into the dynamics of hybrid democratic-authoritarian rule. Professor Way is now under contract with Princeton University Press to write a book (with Levitsky) on the resilience of pluralism in an age of backsliding. He is also the Co-Director of the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine and is Co-Chair of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Democracy. He has held fellowships at Harvard University (Harvard Academy and Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies), and the University of Notre Dame (Kellogg Fellowship).
For more information on the 2024 cohort of Fellows and College members, visit the .