Rachel Beatty Riedl is the Peggy J. Koenig ’78 Director of the Center on Global Democracy in the Brooks School of Public Policy, and a Professor in the Brooks School and Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research expertise is on democracy and authoritarianism and regime transitions globally, and particularly political parties, religion and governance across Africa. Her publications include Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa (CUP 2014) and From Pews to Politics (CUP 2019) and co-editor of Global Challenges to Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Backsliding, Autocracy, and Resilience (CUP 2025).

A former Faculty Fulbright Scholar, Chair of the APSA section Democracy and Autocracy, and President of the Scientific Council at the Institute for Advanced Study (France), she holds a PhD from Princeton University. Riedl has conducted policy analysis for USAID, the World Bank, the State Department, USIP, and the Carter Center. Riedl is also a member of the Open Society University Network’s Forum on Democracy and Development, a full member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Editorial Committee of World Politics, and co-editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements series Politics of Development. She hosts the podcast Democracy Dialogues.