Benjamin Yoel

Benjamin Yoel is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University. Previously, he was a Predoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University's SNF Agora Institute and a visiting PhD student at the University of Chicago's Center on Democracy.

Benjamin studies democratic backsliding, nonviolent resistance, international pressure, opposition politics, and public opinion. His main research agenda focuses on the nexus of foreign pressure and opposition to democratic backsliding. Other work focuses on the broader causes and consequences of democratic backsliding as well as making different types of data more accessible to researchers and practitioners alike. His academic work has been published in Nature: Scientific Data, The International Journal of Public Opinion Research, International Affairs, and American Politics Research.

In addition to his academic research, Benjamin has consulted on projects related to democratic backsliding that have been supported by the US Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Michigan State University and a B.A. and M.A. in Government from Reichman University.