Venelin Ganev
Links
Biography
Ph.D. University of Chicago, 2002; career at Miami: Assistant Professor (2001-2007): Associate Professor (2007-215); Professor, 2015 -- now. Research Interests: communism, postcommunism, constitutionalism, political institutions, comparative politics.
Education
- Jurist, Sofia University, Bulgaria, 1991
- MA in Political Science, University of South Carolina, 1993
- Ph.D. in Political Science, The University of Chicago, 2000
Research Interests
Research Interests: communism, postcommunism, constitutionalism, political institutions, comparative politics
Courses Taught
POL 221: Introduction to Comparative Politics (every Fall I teach an Honors version of this course, POL 221 H)
POL 331: Communism and Soviet Politics
POL 334: Politics in Eastern Europe after WW II
POL 430/530: The Rule of Law
POL 440/540: Havighurst Center Seminar on Soviet, Russian and East European Politics
Publications
Publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes:
“From Populist Emplotment to Populist Deeds,” in: Michael Bernhard, Amie Kreppel and Carlos de la Torre, eds., Still the Age of Populism? Re-Examining Theories and Concepts (New York: Routledge, 2024), pp.191-209
“Expanding the Chronological and Geographical Scope of 1989: Potentialities and Pitfalls,” Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol.25, No.4 (Fall 2023), pp.10-22.
“Reading Tocqueville in Postcommunist Democracies,” Suite Française, No.6, 2023.
“Reductio ad Reaganum,” in: Vladimir Tismaneanu and Jordan Luber, eds., One Hundred Years of Communist Experiments (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2021), pp. 249-268.
“Neoliberalism: The Paradigmatic Weasel Word,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol.34, No.2 (May 2020), pp.307-315
“The Rise of Vladimir Putin: Elite Politics in Early Postcommunism,” Demokratizatsiya, Vol.24, No.4 (Fall 2016), pp. 491-512.
“The Spell of Marx and Jeffrey Sachs: Social Theory and Post-Communist Politics,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 29, No.2 (May 2015), pp.440-452.
“The Borsa: The Black Market for Rock Music in Late Socialist Bulgaria,” Slavic Review, Vol. 73, No. 3 (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), pp.213-232.
“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.
“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), pp.263-283.
“Postcommunist Political Capitalism: A Weberian Interpretation,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol.51, No.3 (July 2009), pp.648-674.
“Postcommunism as an Episode of State-Building: A Reversed Tillyan Perspective,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol.38. No.4 (December 2005), pp.425-445.
“Foxes, Hedgehogs and Learning: Notes on the Past and Future Dilemmas of Postcommunist Constitutionalism,” in: Adam Czarnota, Martin Krygier and Wojciech Sadurski, eds., Rethinking the Rule of Law After Communism (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005), pp.75-91.
“The “Triumph of Neo-Liberalism” Reconsidered: Critical Notes on Ideas-Centered Explanations of Economic Change in Postcommunism,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol.19, No.3 (Summer 2005).
“History, Politics and the Constitution: Ethnic Conflict and Constitutional Adjudication in Postcommunist Bulgaria,” Slavic Review, Vol.63, No.1, (Spring 2004).
“The Bulgarian Constitutional Court, 1991-1997: A Success Story in Context,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.55, No.4 (June 2003).
“The Politics of Ethnic Reconciliation in Bulgaria,” in: Henry F. Carey, ed., National Reconciliation in Eastern Europe, New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
“The Rise of Constitutional Adjudication in Bulgaria,” in: Wojciech Sadurski, ed., Constitutional Justice, East and West, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2002.
“The (Ir)relevance of Postcommunist Constitutionalism,” in: Jan Zielonka, ed., Institutional Engineering in Postcommunist Eastern Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
“The Separation of Party and State as a Logistical Problem: A Glance at the Causes of State Weakness in Postcommunism,” East European Politics and Societies, Volume 35, No.2 (Spring 2001).
“The Dorian Gray Effect: Winners as State Breakers in Postcommunism,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 34, No.1 (Winter 2001), pp.1-25.
“State-Building in Postcommunism,” Helen Kellogg Institute of International Studies Working Paper, No. 289 (November 2001).
"Semi-Presidentialism in Bulgaria," in: Robert Elgie, ed., Semi-Presidential Systems in Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
"Emergency Powers Provisions in the New East-European Constitutions," American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. XLV, No. 3 (Summer 1997), pp.585-612.
Editor-Reviewed Volumes and Social Science Periodicals:
„Stuck at a Crossroads? Bulgaria After the October 2022 General Elections,” NYU Jordan Center for Russian Studies, October 20, 2022, available at:
https://jordanrussiacenter.org/news/stuck-at-th...
“Understanding Illiberal Democracy in Eastern Europe,” IWM-Post: Magazine of the Vienna Institute for Human Sciences, Vol.126, Fall/Winter 2020, pp.12-13.
“Soft Decisionism” in Bulgaria,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 29, No.3 (July 2018).
“The Spectre of Homo Post-Sovieticus,” New Eastern Europe, October 19, 2017, available at: http://neweasterneurope.eu/2017/10/19/spectre-h...
Bulgarian translation, December 15, 2017, “Portal Kultura,” available at: http://kultura.bg/web/%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b8%d0%b7%...
“’Neoliberalism is Fascism and Should Be Criminalized: Bulgarian Populism as Left-Wing Radicalism,” Slavic Review, online issue, Vol. 76, No. 1 (Summer 2017).
“The Intellectual History of Postcommunism: Why We Need It, and How Not to Write It,” Perspectives on Politics, Vol.15, No.2 (June 2017), pp.452-456.
“Karen Dawisha: Scholar, Intellectual, Institution-Builder,” introduction to the special issue “Essays in Honor of Karen Dawisha,” Demokratizatsiya, Vol.24, No.4 (Fall 2016), pp.421-434.
“Mores and Institutions: Tocquevillian Insights and Postcommunist Democratizations,” The American Political Science Association – Comparative Democratization Newsletter, Vol. 12, No.3 (November 2014).
“What Difference Did It Make? Accession and Democratization in Post-Communist Bulgaria,” in Henry F. Carey, ed., European Institutions, Democratization and Human Rights Protection in the European Periphery (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014), pp.201-222.
“Bulgaria’s Year of Civic Anger,” The Journal of Democracy, Vol.25, No.1 (January 2014), pp.33-45.
German translation: “2013 – Das Jahr des bulgarischen Bürgerzorns,” Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West, 43 Jahrgang, No.4-5, 2015.
“The Summer of Bulgarian Discontent,” Reviews and Critical Commentary: A Forum for Research and Commentary on Europe, October 2, 2013, available at:
http://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/critcom/th...
“Does Globalization Facilitate the Spread of Organized Criminal Groups? Questioning the Conventional Wisdom,” editor-solicited review essay, Archives Europeennes de Sociologie/European Journal of Sociology, Vol.52, No.3 (December 2011), pp.481-485.
“Explaining Democratic Success as an Analytical Challenge: Why Are Romania and Bulgaria in the EU?” Newsletter of the AAASS, August 2008, Vol.48, No.4, pp.1-5.
“Understanding State Weakness in Postcommunism,” East European Studies News, March-April 2008, pp.1-4.
“Ballots, Bribes and State-Building in Bulgaria,” The Journal of Democracy, Vol.17, No.1 (January 2006), pp.75-89.
“The Revolutions of 1989,” in: Jim DeFronzio, ed., The Encyclopedia of Modern Revolutions, edited by Jim DeFronzo, ABC-CLIO Publishers, 2006.
“The Role of Ideas in Postcommunist Politics: A Reevaluation” (with Karen Dawisha), introductory remarks to the Special Issue on “The Role of Ideas in Postcommunist Politics,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol.19, No.3 (Summer 2005).
“Constitutionalism and Civil Society: The East European Experience,” in: Mihaela Serban-Rosen, ed., Constitutionalism: Eastern Europe and Africa (Warsaw: The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, 2003).
Introduction to “Symposium on Bulgaria,’” East European Constitutional Review, Vol.10/No.4 (Fall 2002).
“The Balkans: Different, But How and Why?” Romanian Journal of Political Science (Fall 2002).
“Notes on Networking in Postcommunism,” East-European Constitutional Review, Vol..9, Nos.1-2 (Winter/Spring 2000).
"Bulgaria's Symphony of Hope," The Journal of Democracy , Vol. 8, No. 4 (Fall 1997)
"Constitutional Justice in Bulgaria: Two Interviews," East-European Constitutional Review Vol. 6, No.1 (Spring 1997).
“The Constitution as a Script: Notes on Constitutionalism and Political Learning,” POLIS - The Romanian Journal of Political Science (in Romanian) (Summer 1997)
"Prisoners' Rights, Public Services and Institutional Collapse," East European Constitutional Review, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Fall 1995)
"Ethnic Politics in Bulgaria," East European Constitutional Review, Vol.5, No. 1 (Winter 1995)
"On the Bulgarian Presidency" East European Constitutional Review, Vol.3, No. 4 (Winter 1994)
Other publications:
“Westsplaining vs. Eastsplaining,” Eurozine, June 10, 2024, available at: https://www.eurozine.com/westsplaining-versus-e...
“Politicized Judiciaries: The US Case,” text solicited by the Young Jurists’ Club, Sofia University, Bulgaria, in Bulgarian, available at:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/1asUZR9RNBm_oJdy...
“Remembering Kristian Takov,” (in Bulgarian), Kultura, July 11, 2018, available at: http://kultura.bg/web/%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B0-...
“Orgasmic Communism??? Critical Remarks on Kristen R. Ghodsee’s New York Times Op-Ed,” Havighurst Center Blog, blog entry, January 9, 2018, available at: https://blogs.miamioh.edu/havighurst/2018/01/09...
“The Deconstruction of Decency,” The American Interest, December 19, 2013, available at: http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2...
“Preying on the State: What Happened After the Collapse of Communism,” Toni Nikolov interviews Venelin I. Ganev, Kultura, July 4, 2012, available at: http://kultura.bg/web/%D0%BF%D0%BB%D1%8F%D1%87%...
“The Havighurst Center: The First Dozen Years,” NewsNet: News of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Vol.53, No.1 (January 2013), pp.12-14.
“Lazar Nikolov’s Lento,” an essay commissioned by the Miami University Symphony Orchestra and included in the program notes for The Orchestra’s October 8, 2010 concert.
“Memories of the 1989 Revolutions: Bulgaria,” The Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies Newsletter, Fall 2009, available at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/ne...
“Communism in Bulgaria,” encyclopedia entry, Global Museum on Communism, available at http://bulgaria.globalmuseumoncommunism.org, Fall 2009.
“The Debate about the Israeli Lobby,” Foreign Policy – Bulgarian Edition, August/September 2006, p.54-61.
“Vaclav Havel and his play “The Memorandum,”” an essay commissioned by the School of Fine Arts and included in the program guide notes published by Miami University Theater, April 2005.
"Institutional Dilemmas of the Post-Totalitarian Presidency." In: The President and the Constitution, Sofia: Centre for Liberal Strategies, Occasional Papers, No. 6 (November 1996)
"Judicial Independence and Post-Totalitarian Politics," Parker School of Law Journal on East-European Law, Vol.3, No.2 (Winter 1996)
"The West Looked so Fragile...: Some Thoughts on the Disintegration of the Soviet Union”, Epicenter, (in Greek) (May 1992)
“State, Work and Property Relations: A Critique of a Constitutional Provision,” Bulgarian Quarterly, No.2, 1991
“Father Zossima's Concept of Jurisprudence and Adjudication: A Lawyer's Inquiry in Dostoevski's The Brothers Karamazov," Annals of the Philosophy Department, (in Bulgarian) Sofia University, 1988.
