Rate My Professor Margaret Levi

Margaret Levi is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, where she holds positions as Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Woods Institute for the Environment, as well as Faculty Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, which she formerly directed as Sara Miller McCune Director from 2014 to 2022. She is also Professor Emerita in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington, where she served as the Jere L. Bacharach Professor of International Studies, Director of the CHAOS (Comparative Historical Analysis of Organizations and States) Center, and the Harry Bridges Chair and Director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. From 2009 to 2013, she held the Chair in Politics at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Levi earned her A.B. in Political Science from Bryn Mawr College in 1968 and her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 1974. She joined the University of Washington faculty in 1974 as Assistant Professor, advancing to Associate Professor in 1981 and full Professor in 1987.

Levi's research specializations include comparative politics, with a focus on how organizations and governments provoke member willingness to act beyond material self-interest, encompassing themes of trust, legitimacy, compliance, leadership, and cooperation. Her major publications include Of Rule and Revenue (University of California Press, 1988), Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Analytic Narratives (Princeton University Press, 1998), Cooperation Without Trust? (Russell Sage Foundation, 2005), In the Interest of Others (Princeton University Press, 2013), and A Moral Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2021). She has authored or co-authored numerous articles and edited volumes. Among her major awards and honors are the 2019 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, the 2020 Falling Walls Prize for Breakthrough of the Year in Social Sciences and Humanities, fellowship in the National Academy of Sciences (2015), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001), the American Philosophical Society (2018), and the British Academy (2022). Levi served as President of the American Political Science Association from 2004 to 2005 and received the 2014 William H. Riker Prize. She has been general editor of Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, co-general editor of the Annual Review of Political Science, and serves on the editorial board of PNAS. Levi has delivered public lectures and served as a visiting fellow at institutions including the Australian National University, European University Institute, Max Planck Institute, Oxford University, and Peking University, and periodically consults for the World Bank. She serves on the boards of the Berggruen Institute, Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Madrid, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.