About

Terry Lynn Karl is the Gildred Professor in Latin American Studies (Emerita) and a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. with distinction from Stanford University and has served on the faculty of Harvard University’s Government Department before joining Stanford in 1987. She served as director of the Center for Latin American Studies for twelve years, during which the center was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a “center of excellence.” Her research focuses on international and comparative politics, with particular emphasis on the politics of oil-exporting countries, conflict, democratization, human rights, and the politics of inequality across Latin America, West Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Karl has conducted extensive field research, held visiting appointments, and led workshops on these topics, and her work has been translated into at least 25 languages. She is also an active war crimes and human rights investigator, serving as an expert witness for various judicial systems and NGOs. Recognized for her scholarship and public service, she has received numerous awards, including the Latin American Studies Guillermo O’Donnell Prize, Stanford’s highest teaching honors, and international recognition for her contributions to democratization and human rights.

Research topics

• Humanities
• Political Science
• Philosophy

Selected publications

• Desigualdad extrema y captura del Estado: La crisis de la democracia liberal en los Estados Unidos

  Universidad del Pacífico eBooks · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Humanities

  Profunda y creciente desigualdad, alta concentración de riqueza, captura del Estado de parte de intereses minoritarios generando políticas públicas que operan a su favor, un sistema político poco representativo de la mayoría de la población y agudas diferencias raciales y étnicas que hacen difícil la acción colectiva de esta mayoría para mejorar su situación. ¿Perú? ¿Brasil? ¿Chile? No. Son los Estados Unidos hoy, según la doctora Terry Lynn Karl, profesora emérita de Ciencia Política en la Stanford University y especialista en democracia y desarrollo comparados. En este provocador trabajo, Karl argumenta que el declive de la democracia liberal en los Estados Unidos y la emergencia de un populismo de derecha –racista, sexista, xenofóbico– se deben a dos factores fundamentales: la extrema desigualdad y un sistema electoral extraordinariamente manipulable y excluyente.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Exporting Democracy: The Unanticipated Effects of U.S. Electoral Policy in E1 Salvador

  2019-04-11

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The Reagan administration has sought to export democracy through the promotion of elections in Central America, and it actually began to claim outright success in this endeavor with the 1984 victory of Jose Napoleon Duarte in El Salvador. But such claims have been widely disputed in political and academic circles. The decision to hold elections in El Salvador in 1982 during a civil war was rooted primarily in a foreign policy crisis in the United States and only secondarily in events taking place in El Salvador. Despite strong repudiation of the bloody regime by most European and Latin American countries, President Jimmy Carter's administration supported the Salvadoran military but insisted that some degree of reform accompany increased assistance. Criticisms of administration policy dwindled in the wake of media enthusiasm over lines of voters, and Congress increased total aid to El Salvador by almost 100 percent. While electoral pressures inside El Salvador intensified, demands from the United States temporarily diminished.

  PublisherDOI

• Extreme Inequality and State Capture: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy in The United States

  Chinese Political Science Review · 2019-05-27 · 11 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 5. The Vicious Cycle of Inequality in Latin America

  2019-12-31 · 26 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Latin America is the most unequal region in the world. This acute inequality affects virtually all aspects of economic, social and political life; it is fundamental for explaining why the results of the past two decades of development have been so disappointing in this area of the world. Economic growth has been surprisingly low despite having embraced neoliberal economic models, which succeeded almost everywhere in cutting inflation to single digits, reducing budget deficits, and generally lowering public external debt during the 1990s. The quality of services remains poor, unemployment is high, and a sharp rise in crime and violence threatens daily life. As the region enters the 21st Century, more than a third of its citizens live in poverty, and nearly 80 million people suffer from extreme poverty, with incomes less than $1 a day. When asked their opinions, Latin Americans consistently state that poverty seems higher than ever before, their quality of life is lower, their political institutions are unsatisfactory, and they are anxious about the future. Not surprisingly, in a region characterized by the most unequal distribution of income and assets in the world, most believe that their societies are fundamentally unjust (Lora 2000). Addressing acute inequality is imperative if Latin American democracies are to

  PublisherDOI

• Latin America:

  University of Notre Dame Press eBooks · 2016-12-15 · 6 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Index

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2013-04-30

  paratextOpen access

  Antarctic ice 287, 405 Anthropocene epoch (proposed) 547 anthropogenic activity 16, 287-326 data collection 294 at Mauna Loa 287, 288

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• DEMOCRACY OVER A BARREL: OIL, REGIME CHANGE AND WAR

  eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 2008-07-07 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Will autocracies dependent on the export of oil become democratic? To some, the answer seems evident. “The trend is clear,” President Bush said in March 2005. “In the Middle East and throughout the world, freedom is on the march.” Unfortunately, at least in the near term, the opposite is true. Not only is the worldwide spread of democracy stagnating in general, but a number of countries that had once demonstrated some progress are seriously backsliding. By my calculations, about a third of these backsliders are oil-exporters, perhaps most notably Russia. And not a single oil-exporter currently classified by Freedom House as “not free” or “partly free” shows signs of changing its status to democracy. This does not mean that oil-exporting countries cannot become democratic (witness, for example, Norway or Trinidad-Tobago), but it does indicate that oil dependence may pose special problems for democratization.

  Publisher

• Introduction

  Pluto Press eBooks · 2007-03-20

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• From Democracy to Democratization: Before and After Transitions from Authoritarian Rule

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2006-09-27 · 5 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Social and Political Consequences of Oil

  2005-12-31 · 9 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Stephan Haggard

  University of California, San Diego

  85 shared

• James A. Caporaso

  University of Washington

  53 shared

• Stephen Wagner

  Harvard University

  49 shared

• Christer Jönsson

  49 shared

• Charles Kratochwil

  Columbia University

  49 shared

• John A. C. Conybeare

  49 shared

• Robert Jervis

  Columbia University

  49 shared

• Helen V. Milner

  Princeton Public Schools

  49 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Stanford University

Awards & honors

• Guillermo O’Donnell Prize in Latin American Studies (March 2…
• Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, University of San F…
• Miriam Roland Volunteer Service Prize from Stanford Universi…
• Oxfam Martin Diskin Prize from Latin American Studies Associ…
• Stanford’s Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (1989)