Profile
James W. McGuire, Professor in the Department of Government at Wesleyan University, received a BA from Swarthmore and a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in comparative politics, focusing on democracy, social welfare policies, and public health in Latin America and East Asia. He is a core faculty member of Wesleyan’s Latin American Studies Program and is a recipient of Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
McGuire is the author of Peronism without Perón (Stanford, 1997) and of articles and chapters on Argentine politics and labor unions; social welfare policies; transitions from authoritarianism; economic growth, income inequality, and mortality decline, particularly in East Asia and Latin America. Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America (Cambridge, 2010) explores why some countries do better than others at raising life expectancy and reducing infant mortality. It won the 2011 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Democracy and Population Health (Cambridge, 2020) explored the interactions between the two phenomena. Recently published: “The Trump Vote and Covid-19 Vaccination Across US States, US Counties, and Connecticut Towns,” Regional and Federal Studies (2023, online before print, postprint, online appendix). Google Scholar page.