Biography
Noam Lupu is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Global Democracy. He studies comparative political behavior, partisanship and political parties, class and inequality, representation, and legacies of violence. He is the author of Party Brands in Crisis(Cambridge University Press, 2016) and coeditor of Unequal Democracies (with Jonas Pontusson, Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Campaigns and Voters in Developing Democracies (with Virginia Oliveros and Luis Schiumerini, University of Michigan Press, 2019). His research has appeared in American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, and World Politics, among other outlets. He has also received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships.Media Appearances
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Why working‑class people account for around 1% of lawmakers in the US – and only 2% in the average democracy around the world
Both major U.S. political parties regularly tout their commitment to working-class Americans and claim to be the party of the working class. However, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans nominate many candidates who spent substantial time in working-class jobs.August 20th, 2026
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Trump's approval rating drops among White working-class voters
“The decline is significant given that White working-class voters were a pretty stable support between 2016 and 2020 for Trump after trending Republican since the early 1990s,” said Noam Lupu, a Vanderbilt University political science professor.July 12th, 2026
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Trump’s True Colors, Revealed
Noam Lupu, a political scientist at Vanderbilt, wrote by email: “I think there’s a more general puzzle here: that Republican policies seem disproportionately to hurt smaller communities and Democratic policies seem disproportionately to help them — even though majorities in these communities vote for Republicans.”July 1st, 2025
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Mexico poised to elect first female president: 3 essential reads on landmark vote
How has that affected the way people in the region think about democracy? Luke Plutowski, Elizabeth J. Zechmeister and Noam Lupu at Vanderbilt University’s LAPOP Lab have some answers.May 31st, 2024
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In the face of severe challenges, democracy is under stress – but still supported – across Latin America and the Caribbean
Threats to economic and physical security have become persistent and pervasive across Latin America and the Caribbean – and that is affecting the way people view the state of democracy in the region.February 13th, 2024
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Support for democracy is waning across the Americas
People are losing faith in democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. Across North, Central and South America, and parts of the Caribbean, only 63% of the public expressed support for democracy in 2021. This is a main takeaway from the most recent AmericasBarometer surveys we have conducted every other year: Support for democracy has declined by almost 10 percentage points since 2004.March 8th, 2022
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95 Percent of Representatives Have a Degree. Look Where That’s Got Us.
Five years ago, Nicholas Carnes, a political scientist at Duke, tried to measure whether more formal education made political leaders better at their jobs. After conducting a sweeping review of 228 countries between the years 1875 and 2004, he and his colleague Noam Lupu concluded: No. It did not. A college education did not mean less inequality, a greater G.D.P., fewer labor strikes, lower unemployment or less military conflict.December 21st, 2020
Education
Ph.D., Princeton University
M.A., Princeton University
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