Assistant Professor
School of International Service
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20016-8071
Telephone: (202) 885-2457
Email: levan@american.edu
Office hours, spring 2010
Tuesdays 2 – 5, Thursdays 3 – 5
(and by appointment)
Welcome to my new web page! Briefly, about me:
I teach courses on African politics and comparative political theory at American University, where I currently chair the Council on African Studies. I am writing a book that uses veto player theory to explain government performance in Nigeria since independence. Using original qualitative and quantitative data, my empirical tests challenge the conventional wisdom about the impact of regime type, ethnic diversity, and oil on policy outputs. I am working to extend the model to two pairs of other African cases. My findings pose a dilemma for countries that seek to maximize political inclusion: Increasing the number of political actors improves the representativeness of the policy process. However these additional preferences can both increase the overall costs of particularistic policies and impair the delivery of public goods.
In February 2010, look for my chapter on Nigeria co-authored with Patrick Ukata, assessing the state of human rights and political freedom, published by Freedom House.