Javier Corrales

Javier Corrales (born 1966) is a political scientist at Amherst College. He was born in Puerto Rico to parents that were part of the Cuban exile. He received a BS (1986) in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and earned his PhD (1996) in political science from Harvard University. His dissertation focused on comparative economy in Argentina and Venezuela. He was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from 2000-2001. Since 2014, he has served as Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science at Amherst. In 2015, Corrales coined the term autocratic legalism to explain how Venezuela transitioned to authoritarianism by using the legal system to impose autocracy. Sociologist Kim Lane Scheppele expanded upon the idea in her own work in 2018. Corrales is the author of the book ''Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism'' (2022). Provided by Wikipedia