Most Recent Academic Publications and Working Papers

The Cost of Ruling as an Equilibrating Mechanism in Democracies (July 2, 2026)

Of Empires and Parties. Their Growth-Decline Curves and the Cost of Ruling

Becoming an American Politologist

In defense of the American Way of electing presidents

Cuzán and Heggen, "Expenditures and Votes in the U.S. and U.K."

The Path Toward Totalitarianism. The Case of Cuba.

Laws of Politics. Their Operations in Democracies and Dictatorships (New York: Routledge, 2022).

Cost-of-Ruling. An Exploration of U.S Gubernatorial Elections 

The-First-Two-Laws-of-Politics. Nannestad and Paldam's 'Cost of Ruling' Revisited. Published-in-Acta-Politica-.pdf (1485kb)

A-Derivative-Based-Fiscal-Model-of-U.S.-Presidential-Elections-1880-20201.pdf (465kb)

The Campbell Collection of Presidential Elections Forecasts, 1984-2016. A Review.

Most Recent Essays:

"How Many House Seats Will the Democrats Lose this Year? Some Clues from History."

"A Fulbrighter in Estonia." Prepared for presentation at the 2018 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, June 1-3.

 "In Defense of the Electoral College." First published under the title "The Electoral College works for United States" in Pensacola News Journal, November 1, 2017, p. 10 C.

"The 2016 Election: An Earthquake or a Hurricane?" Sabato's Crystal Ball, September 21st, 2017.

"OK, Trump may be Machiavellian. But which Machiavelli?" The Monkey Cage, Washington Post, March 11, 2016.