Professor of Political Science

PHONE: 513-529-2334
OFFICE: 316 Harrison Hall 
EMAIL: ganevvi@miamioh.edu
DEPARTMENT: Political Science

Degrees and Institutions

Ph.D. (Political Science) University of Chicago
M.A. (Political Science) University of South Carolina
L.M. Sofia University

Biography

Venelin I. Ganev (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 2000) is an Associate Professor in Political Science and a faculty associate of the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University of Ohio. His main fields of interest are postcommunist politics, democratization studies, constitutionalism, and modern social theory. His publications have appeared in East European Constitutional Review, American Journal of Comparative Law, Journal of Democracy, East European Politics and Societies, Communist and Postcommunist Studies, Slavic Review, Europe-Asia Studies and Comparative Studies in Society and History. He has also contributed chapters to several volumes that explore various aspects of institution-building in contemporary Europe. In 2003-4 Professor Ganev was a National Fellow at The Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His first book, Preying on the State: The Transformation of Postcommunist Bulgaria was published in 2007 by Cornell University Press.

REEES Related Courses

• ATH/HST 436/536 /POL 440/540 /REL 470/570/RUS 436 Havighurst Colloquia
• POL 331: Communism and Soviet Politics
• POL 334 Politics of Eastern Europe
• POL 430B/530B The Rule of Law: Theoretical Debates and Postcommunist Experiences

Selected Publications

• “The Borsa: The Black Market for Rock Music in Late Socialist Bulgaria,” Slavic Review, (Fall 2014).
• “The Inescapable Past: The Politics of Memory in Postcommunist Bulgaria,” in: Michael Bernhard and Jan Kubik, eds., Twenty Years After Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
• “Bulgaria’s Year of Civic Anger,” The Journal of Democracy, Vol.25, No.1 (January 2014), pp.33-45.
• “Post-Accession Hooliganism: Democratic Governance in Bulgaria and Romania After 2007,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol.27, No.1 (February 2013), pp.26-44.
• “The Annulled Tax State: Schumpeterian Prolegomena to the Study of Postcommunist Fiscal Sociology,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol.44, No.4 (December 2011), pp.245-255.
• “Understanding Leviathan’s Malaise: Stateness and the Crisis of Governability in Post-Communist Polities,” in: Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, eds., Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp.19-37.
• Preying on the State: The Transformation of Bulgaria After 1989. Cornell University Press, 2007.
• “The Rule of Law as an Institutionalized Wager: Constitutions, Courts and Transformative Dynamics in Eastern Europe.” The Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, Vol.1, No.2 (Fall 2009): 263-283.
• “Understanding Leviathan’s Malaise: Stateness and the Crisis of Governability in Post-Communist Polities,” in: Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic, eds., Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009): 19-37.
• "Postcommunist Political Capitalism: A Weberian Interpretation." Comparative Studies in Society and History 51.3 (July 2009): 648-674.