Benjamin Yoel

Benjamin Yoel is a political scientist studying democratic backsliding, political violence, and authoritarian politics. He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University and a predoctoral fellow at the SNF Agora Institute, working with Prof. Consuelo Amat. His dissertation studies the causes and consequences of opposition to democratic backsliding, focusing on the nexus of domestic and international factors in shaping public support for and the success of opposition movements in backsliding democracies.

He recently worked as a Data Consultant for the Democratic Erosion Consortium as part of a US Department of State funded project, was a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago’s Center of Democracy, and served as the Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Politics. He has published in Nature: Scientific Data, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and American Politics Research.

He holds a BA in Government and an MA in Conflict Studies from Reichman University, where his research focused on political conflict in authoritarian regimes.