Person
Monika Nalepa Office: Pick Hall 324A Phone: 773 702 0234 Email Interests:
  • Post-Communist politics
  • Comparative political institutions
  • Positive political theory
  • Transitional justice

Monika Nalepa (PhD, Columbia University) is professor of political science at the University of Chicago. With a focus on post-communist Europe, her research interests include transitional justice, parties and legislatures, and game-theoretic approaches to comparative politics. Her first book, Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe was published in the Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics Series and received the Best Book award from the Comparative Democratization section of the APSA and the Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the Political Organizations and Parties section of the APSA. Her next book with Cambridge University Press, published in 2022, is entitled After Authoritarianism: Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability. She has also published articles in the Quarterly Journal of Political ScienceJournal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, the Journal of Comparative Politics, World Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Parliamentary Affairs, and Constitutional Political Economy.

Monika Nalepa is the Director of the Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability Lab, which produces the Global Transitional Justice Dataset.

Recent Research / Recent Publications

After Authoritarianism: Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability

Nalepa, Monika. 2022. After Authoritarianism: Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability, Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions, Cambridge University Press.

"Infiltration of Religious Organizations as a Strategy of Authoritarian Durability: Causes and Consequences.''

Nalepa, Monika and Grigore Pop-Eleches. 2022 "Infiltration of Religious Organizations as a Strategy of Authoritarian Durability: Causes and Consequences.'' Journal of Politics  84 (2): 156-269.

"Accountability by the Numbers: Introducing the Global Transitional Justice Events Dataset (1946-2016)''

Bates, Genevieve, Ipek Cinar and Monika Nalepa. 2020 "Accountability by the Numbers: Introducing the Global Transitional Justice Events Dataset (1946-2016)'' Perspectives on Politics 18 (1): 161-184.

"Can Transitional Justice improve the Quality of Representation in New Democracies?''

Ang, Milena and Monika Nalepa. 2019 "Can Transitional Justice improve the Quality of Representation in New Democracies?'' World Politics 71 (4):  631-666.