
Benjamin Goldfrank, Ph.D.
Professor
School of Diplomacy and International Relations
(973) 275-2095
Email
McQuaid Hall
Room 112
Benjamin Goldfrank, Ph.D.
Benjamin Goldfrank joined the School of Diplomacy and International Relations in 2007 and served as Department Chair from 2013 to 2019. He teaches classes on Latin American politics, society, and economic development, and U.S. foreign policy toward the region, as well as the capstone research project course. His research interests focus on the comparative analysis of Latin American politics, experiments in participatory democracy, and political parties.
Dr. Goldfrank has published over 30 articles and book chapters. He is also the author of Deepening Local Democracy in Latin America: Participation, Decentralization and the Left (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011) and co-editor of The Left in the City: Participatory Local Governments in Latin America (London: Latin American Bureau and Transnational Institute, 2004), which was translated into Spanish and Italian.
Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2002
- M.A., Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1996
- B.A., Social Studies, Harvard University, 1993
Scholarship
-
"Sistemas Participativas en Brasil y Venezuela: Orígenes y ocasos de dos modelos," Caderno CRH 33 (2020).
-
"Participatory Democracy in Latin America? Limited Legacies of the Left Turn," in Legacies of the Left Turn in Latin America: The Promise of Inclusive Citizenship, edited by Manuel Bálan and Francoise Montambeault (Notre Dame University Press, 2020).
-
"La difusión y el diseño de los presupuestos participativos en Brasil y los Estados Unidos," Revista de Ciencia Política y Gobierno 11 (2019).
-
"Participatory Budgeting in Canada and the United States. Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide" Co-authored with Katherine Landes, Epopeia Records and Oficina. 2018
-
"The Latin American Left’s Missed Opportunity to Deepen Democracy," Journal of International Affairs, 71:1 (Fall/Winter 2017).
-
"Good Government and Politics as Usual: The Schizophrenic Path of the Workers' Party," co-authored with Brian Wampler, in Peter Kingstone and Timothy Power, eds., Democratic Brazil Divided. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 2017.
-
"Participatory Budgeting in Latin American Cities," in Urban Latin America: Inequalities and Neoliberal Reforms, edited by Tom Angotti. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
-
“The Systemic Turn and Participatory Budgeting: The Case of Rio Grande do Sul,” co-authored with Sveinung Legard, Journal of Latin American Studies (FirstView: Published online by Cambridge University Press, 09 October 2020; print version forthcoming 2021).
-
“Scaling-Up and Zooming-Out: Understanding How and When Participatory Institutions Matter,” co-authored with Jared Abbott, Comparative Politics (July 2021; Fast Track online since December 2020).
-
“Social Movements and Participatory Institutions in Latin America,” co-authored with Rocío Annunziata, in Federico M. Rossi (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2021).
-
“Inclusion without Power: Limits of Participatory Institutions,” in Diana Kapiszewski, Steven Levitsky, and Deborah Yashar (eds.), The Inclusionary Turn in Latin American Democracies, edited by (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).
-
“La democracia estadounidense en el siglo XXI: ¿Mengua temporal o un ocaso permanente?” in ¿Una nueva democracia para el siglo XXI? edited by Joaquín Brugué Torruella, Simone Martins, and Carmen Pineda Nebot. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2020.
-
Published in Portuguese as, “A democracia estadunidense no século XXI: declínio temporário ou decadência permanente?” in Uma nova democracia para o século XXI? edited by Joaquín Brugué Torruella, Simone Martins, and Carmen Pineda Nebot. Viçosa: Instituto de Políticas Públicas e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, 2020.
-
Accomplishments
Awards and Grants
- University Research Council Summer Research Grant, Seton Hall University. (2020)
- Seton Hall University Teacher of the Year, 2016.
- Teacher of the Year, School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, 2016.
-
Salgo-Noren Teacher of the Year, School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, 2012.
-
Researcher of the Year, School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, 2011-2012.
-
University Research Council Award, Seton Hall University, 2010.
-
Fulbright Fellowship, for dissertation research in Brazil, 1998-9.
-
Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard University, 1993.