Dr. Johannes Gerschewski
Research fields
CV
since 10/2023
Interim professor in Political Theory and History of Ideas, Leibniz University Hannover
since 06/2019
Research Fellow at Global Governance Unit, WZB; Academic Coordinator of Theory Network, Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)", Freie Universität Berlin
10/2021-04/2022
Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship, European University Institute (EUI), Florence
10/2018-05/2019
Lecturer at Hochschule für Politik, Technical University Munich
10/2016-09/2018
Lecturer at Institute for Social Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
02/2011-09/2016
Research Fellow at the Democracy and Democratization Unit, WZB; 2014-2016 co-head of DFG-funded project "Critical Junctures and the Survival of Dictatorships"
08/2014-12/2014
Guest researcher, Transatlantic Program, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA), Harvard University
2008-2014 PhD; Dissertation on "Stabilizing Autocratic Rule. Legitimation, Repression, and Co-optation in East Asia's Autocracies", Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin ("summa cum laude")
"Gero Erdmann-Award for Comparative Area Studies", awarded by Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft and Democracy Research Section of the German Political Science Association for best dissertattion in 2013 and 2014
since 2014 member of the scholar network External Democracy Promotion (EDP), funded by the Senate of the Leibniz Association
10/2011-12/2011 Visiting PhD candidate at University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations
since 2011 Co-founder of Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences; in the following years co-organizer, moderator and lecturer
2001/2002-2008 Studies in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (Magister Artium) as well as International Business and Cultural Studies (Diplom) at University of Passau, Freie Universität Berlin and Yonsei University, Seoul
Selected Publications
2023
Gerschewski, Johannes (2023): The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boussalis, Constantine/Dukalskis, Alexander/Gerschewski, Johannes (2023): "Why It Matters What Autocrats Say: Assessing Competing Theories of Propaganda." In: Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 70, No. 3, pp.241-253.
2021
Gerschewski, Johannes (2021): "Explanations of Institutional Change. Reflecting on a 'Missing Diagonal.'" In: American Political Science Review, Vol. 115, No. 1, pp.218-233.
Gerschewski, Johannes (2021): "Erosion or Decay? Conceptualizing Causes and Mechanisms of Democratic Regression." In: Democratization, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp.43-62.
Tannenberg, Marcus/Bernhard, Michael/Gerschewski, Johannes/Lührmann, Anna/von Soest, Christian (2021): "Claiming the Right to Rule: Regime Legitimation Strategies from 1900 to 2019." In: European Political Science Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.77-94.
Zürn, Michael/Gerschewski, Johannes (2021): "Sketching the Liberal Script. A Target of Contestations." SCRIPTS Working Paper No. 10, Berlin: Cluster of Excellence 2055 “Contestations of the Liberal Script – SCRIPTS”
2020
Gerschewski, Johannes (2020): "Persistenz - Kontinuität - Adaptivität: Konzeptionen politischer Stabilität in der Vergleichenden Autokratieforschung." In: Leviathan. Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, Sonderband 36, pp.21-38.
Neundorf, Anja/Gerschewski, Johannes/Olar, Roman-Gabriel (2020): "How Do Inclusionary and Exclusionary Autocracies Affect Ordinary People?" In: Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 53, No. 12, pp.1890-1925.
Volpi, Frédéric/Gerschewski, Johannes (2020): "Crises and Critical Junctures in Authoritarian Regimes: Addressing Uprisings' Temporalities and Discontinuities." In: Third World Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp.1030-1045.
Gerschewski, Johannes (2020): "Governing Markets in Autocratic Regimes." In: Abbott, Kenneth W./Zangl, Bernhard/Snidal, Duncan/Genschel, Philipp (Eds.): The Governor's Dilemma. Indirect Governance Beyond Principals and Agents. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.239-256.
Dukalskis, Alexander/Gerschewski Johannes (2020): "Adapting or Freezing? Ideological Reactions of Communist Regimes in a Post-Communist World." In: Government & Opposition, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp.511-532.
2019
Merkel, Wolfgang/Gerschewski, Johannes (2019): "Democratic Transformation after the Second World War." In: Kollmorgen, Raj/Merkel, Wolfgang/Wagener, Hans-Jürgen (Eds.): Oxford Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.280-292.
2018
Gerschewski, Johannes (2018): "Legitimacy in Autocracies. Oxymoron or Essential Feature?" In: Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp.652-665.
Thyen, Kressen/Gerschewski, Johannes (2018): "Legitimacy and Protest under Authoritarianism. Explaining Student Mobilization in Egypt and Morocco during the Arab Uprisings." In: Democratization, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp.38-57.
Gerschewski, Johannes/Stefes, Christoph H., eds (2018): Crisis in Autocratic Regimes. Boulder: Lynne Rienner [2019 also as paperback].
2017
Dukalskis, Alexander/Gerschewski, Johannes (2017): "What autocracies say (and what citizens hear). Proposing four mechanisms of autocratic legitimation." In: Contemporary Politics, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 251-268. [Guest editors of special issue; most cited article of "Contemporary Politics" in last three years]
2013
Gerschewski, Johannes (2013): "The Three Pillars of Stability: Legitimation, Repression, and Co-optation in Autocratic Regimes". In: Democratization, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp.13-38. [Recipient of the Frank Cass 2013 Award for Best Article by a Young Scholar]
2012
Gerschewski, Johannes/Merkel, Wolfgang/Schmotz, Alexander/Stefes, Christoph H./Tanneberg, Dag (2012), Warum überleben Diktaturen?, in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Sonderheft 47, pp.106-131.
Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)"