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Mailing address
Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Mailbox 121
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Rachel Gisselquist
Research Director, Index of African Governance
Contact:
Telephone: 617-495-2550
Fax: 617-491-8588
Email: rachel_gisselquist@ksg.harvard.edu
Experience
Dr. Rachel Gisselquist, a political scientist, specializes in comparative politics, with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Her research is on governance, ethnic and identity politics, democratization, and elections. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007), an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a BSFS from Georgetown University.
Since 2007, Dr. Gisselquist has been the Research Director of the Index of African Governance with the Program on Intrastate Conflict. The Index of African Governance, authored by Robert I. Rotberg and Gisselquist, assesses governance in all forty-eight sub-Saharan African countries. It is based on fifty-seven indicators in five categories: Safety and Security; the Rule of Law, Transparency, and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development. The Index has been featured in numerous publications, including the Economist, the Africa Report, the Independent, and Oxford Analytica. The first Index was released in September 2007. The 2008 Index and report are available at
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/18541/strengthening_african_governance.html.
Dr. Gisselquist's dissertation, "Ethnic Leftists, Populist Ethnics: The New Politics of Identity," focuses on changes in the relative salience of ethnicity and class in electoral politics in Bolivia and Latin America more generally. It provides new measurement of these changes, and argues, contrary to the much of the literature, that the importance of ethnicity in electoral politics is not explained by ethnic diversity or fractionalization, institutions, or elite manipulation. Rather, it is the relationship between ethnic and other identity groups that is key in understanding how and when politicians will successfully play the ethnic card. The manuscript is under revision. Other recent publications include "Democratic Transition and Democratic Survival in Benin," Democratization (August 2008).
Dr. Gisselquist's research has been supported by several grants and fellowships, including a Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation. During 2005-2007, she was a Pre-doctoral Fellow of the International Security and Intrastate Conflict Programs of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
October 6, 2008
Strengthening African Governance: Results and Rankings 2008
In the News
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
All citizens of all countries desire to be governed well. That is what citizens want from the nation-states in which they live. Thus, nation-states in the modern world are responsible for the delivery of essential political goods to their inhabitants.
October 6, 2008
The 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance
Policy Brief
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
Small states, island states, and Botswana, and South Africa are the best governed countries in sub-Saharan Africa according to this year’s Index of African Governance
August 2008
"Democratic Transition and Democratic Survival in Benin"
Journal Article, Democratization, issue 4, volume 15
By Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
Through its National Conference in 1990 and presidential and legislative elections in 1991, Benin successfully undertook a transition to democracy. Notwithstanding some electoral irregularities, this (minimal) democracy has survived since, witnessing three successful alternations of executive power. A 'deviant' case, Benin is not well explained by theories of democratization that highlight economic development and diffusion effects.
September 25, 2007
Ibrahim Index of African Governance
Report
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
Strengthening African governance is the goal of a new ranking system that has been developed. The Index draws heavily on pioneering work by Robert I. Rotberg, Director of the Belfer Center's Program on Intrastate Conflict.
November, 2005
Peacekeeping Forces
Book Chapter
By Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
Autumn 2005
Book Review: Mestizaje Upside Down: Aesthetic Politics in Modern Bolivia by Javier Sanjines C.
Journal Article, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, issue 2, volume 36
By Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
May, 2005
Ethnicidad, clase y cambio en el sistema de partidos boliviano
Journal Article, T?inkazos: Revista Boliviana de Ciencias Sociale, issue 18, volume 8
By Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance
January, 2005
Bolivia's 2004 Municipal Elections
Journal Article, Focal Point: Spotlight on the Americas
By Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Index of African Governance



