Government

Faculty

Sharon Werning Rivera, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Government

Sharon Werning Rivera (Ph.D., University of Michigan) specializes in the post-communist countries of Eurasia with a particular emphasis on Russia. Her research and teaching interests are in the field of comparative politics with particular emphases on democratization, elite political culture, the transformation of elites in post-communist settings, and the diffusion of ideas. Rivera's articles have appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Political Studies, Party Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, PS: Political Science and Politics, and Europe-Asia Studies, as well as in edited collections. She was recently named a 2012-13 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to the Russian Federation.

Her current research projects focus on two main questions: 1) what is the relative balance between structure and agency in explaining democratization in the post-communist region? and 2) how valid are widespread claims that the elite sector in Russia during the Putin era has become dominated by individuals from the military security services?

She has also published pedagogical articles on the use of active learning strategies in the classroom. The simulation she developed for the introductory comparative politics course at Hamilton College was published as an on-line text by Congressional Quarterly Press.

She teaches the following courses:

Gov 112W: Comparative Politics
Gov 213: Politics in Russia
Gov 311W: Transitions to Democracy
Gov 550: Senior Project
Russian Studies 100: Introduction to Russia

Professor Rivera was a Mellon-Sawyer Post-Doctoral Fellow in Democratization at Cornell University from 1998-1999 and holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She has also worked as a consultant on various projects relating to the post-communist region of Eurasia.

Her publications include:

(Articles and Book Chapters in English)

"Yeltsin, Putin, and Clinton: Presidential Leadership and Russian Democratization in Comparative Perspective," Perspectives on Politics 7. No. 3 (September 2009): 591-610. With David W. Rivera. (copyright Cambridge University Press)
"Engaging Students as Paraprofessionals through Simulations," Journal of Political Science Education 4, No. 3 (July 2008): 298-316. With Janet Simons.
"The Russian Elite under Putin: Militocratic or Bourgeois?" Post-Soviet Affairs 22, No. 2 (April-June 2006): 125-144. With David W. Rivera.
"Interviewing Political Elites: Lessons from Russia," in David Rochefort, ed., Quantitative Methods in Practice: Readings from PS (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2006). With Polina Kozyreva and Eduard Sarovskii. Updated version of article in PS: Political Science and Politics.
"Out of the Ivory Tower: Integrating Service-Learning into Russian Studies," AAASS NewsNet 46, No. 2 (March 2006): 15-19.
"Elites and the Diffusion of Foreign Models in Russia," Political Studies 52, No. 1 (March 2004): 43-62.
"Interviewing Political Elites: Lessons from Russia," PS: Political Science and Politics 35, No. 4 (December 2002): 683-88. With Polina Kozyreva and Eduard Sarovskii.
"Elites in Post-Communist Russia: A Changing of the Guard?" Europe-Asia Studies 52, No. 3 (2000): 413-432.
"Historical Cleavages or Transition Mode? Influences on the Emerging Party Systems in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia," Party Politics 2, No. 2 (1996): 177-208.
"The Second Russian Revolution," in Daniel Diller, ed., Russia and the Independent States (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1993).
"Reforming the Soviet System," in Daniel Diller, ed., The Soviet Union, 3rd ed. (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1990).

Onlne Text

Elections in West Europa, Congressional Quarterly Press, 2009. On-line simulation for comparative politics courses. www.cqpress.com/product/WestEuropa.html

Articles and Book Chapters in Russian

“El’tsin, Putin i prezidentskaya vlast’” [Yeltsin, Putin, and Presidential Power], Politicheskie issledovaniya [Political Research], No. 3 (2012): 19-29. With David W. Rivera.
“K bolee tochnym otsenkam transformatsii v Rossiiskoi elite” [Towards a More Accurate Assessment of the Transformation of the Russian Elite] (with David W. Rivera), Politicheskie issledovaniya [Political Research], No. 5 (2009): 149-157.
"Unikal'nyi put' Rossii? Obzor politicheskikh elit" ["A Unique Path for Russia? A Survey of Political Elites"], in A. D. Shutov, Uchenye zapiski 2006 (Moscow: Nauchnaya kniga, 2006), pp. 46-59. Publication of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Tendentsii formirovaniya sostava post-kommunisticheskoi elity v Rossii: reputatsionnyi analiz" [Trends in the Formation of Russia's Post Communist Elite: A Reputational Analysis], Politicheskie issledovaniya, No. 6 (1995): 61-66. Errata published in "Popravka," Politicheskie issledovaniya, No. 3 (1996): 156-157.
"Tendentsii formirovaniya sostava post-kommunisticheskoi elity v Rossii: reputatsionnyi analiz" [Trends in the Formation of Russia's Post Communist Elite: A Reputational Analysis], in I. I. Petrov, ed., Novaya elita v Rossii [New Elites in Russia] (Moscow, 1995).

Contact Professor Rivera: