Denise Dresser is a Mexican political analyst, columnist, academic and activist. Her work has centered on Mexican democratization, corruption, the construction of citizenship and political economy issues from a comparative perspective. She is a professor of political science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), where she has taught comparative politics, political economy, and Mexican politics since 1991. She also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and at Georgetown University.
Dresser is the author of numerous publications on Mexican politics and U.S.-Mexico relations including Neopopulist Solutions to Neoliberal Problems: Mexico’s National Solidarity Program, “Exporting Conflict: Transboundary Consequences of Mexican Politics,” “Treading Lightly and Without a Stick: International Actors and the Promotion of Democracy in Mexico,” “Falling From the Tightrope: The Political Economy of the Mexican Crisis,” and “Mexico: Dysfunctional Democracy,” in Jorge Domínguez and Michael Shifter (eds.), Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America, and a forthcoming chapter in The Mexico Reader edited by Gil Joseph. She has published articles in the Journal of Democracy, Current History, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, The Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies, Nexos, Revista de la Universidad, Foreign Policy, Americas Quarterly and Foreign Affairs.
Dresser earned her Ph.D. in Politics at Princeton University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, after completing her undergraduate work at El Colegio de México. She has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute for the Study of World Politics, the Center for International Studies at Princeton University, and the Organization of American States. In 1993 she was given the Junior Third World Scholar award by the International Studies Association. Dresser has been a Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy at UCLA, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, a Fellow at the Ditchley Foundation, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington D.C., a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley, and a Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar.
She has delivered lectures at the Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley, Yale University, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, the Munck School for International Affairs at the University of Toronto, University College, London, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, Princeton University, the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C., the National War College, Stanford University, Brown University, the World Bank, Columbia University, the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington D.C., the Council of the Americas in New York, the Aspen Institute Congressional Program, UCLA, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Peace Institute, the Ministry of External Affairs, Ottawa, the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina, the Kellog Center at Notre Dame, the Rand Corporation, Georgetown University, the Atlantic Council, the Foreign Service Institute in conjunction with MIT’s Center for International Studies, and the Paris Peace Forum among many others. She also delivers conferences and lectures throughout Mexico on a regular basis.
She has participated in the World Economic Forum. She was also invited to speak at a special session on growth and inequality at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. She is frequently invited to forums at the Mexican Congress and was been asked to present her amicus curie views on abortion rights to the Mexican Supreme Court. She briefed U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey on Mexico-related issues, and testified at a special hearing on Mexico before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. She also briefed former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein during his last visit to Mexico.
Dresser has been a member of the Research Council of the Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy, the World Academy of Arts and Science, the advisory board of Trans-National Research Corporation, the editorial board of the Latin American Research Review, the Global Affairs Board at Occidental College, the board of the General Service Foundation, the Governing Board of the Institute of Lifelong Learning at UNESCO and the editorial committee of the Fondo de Cultura Económica. She also served on the Citizens’ Committee in charge of investigating Mexico’s dirty war. She was on the board of the Human Rights Commission for Mexico City for eight years. She has also worked as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program, the Open Society Institute, Barings Research and the Bank of Montreal. She was recently appointed to the International Advisory Board for the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves on the Latin American advisory board of Human Rights Watch, and the L’Oreal Board for Diversity and Inclusion.
As a political activist her work has centered on the promotion of free and fair elections in the 1990s, and after the 2000 election that brought at end to dominant party rule, she has worked on numerous civil society initiatives to increase the quality of Mexican democracy. She was an electoral observer for Alianza Cívica, participated in the legal action that led the Mexican Supreme Court to declare the “Ley Televisa” unconstitutional, has participated in two cases related to the transparency of government spending that reached the Supreme Court, led the drive to assure the passage of the “Ley 3de3” and the approval of Mexico’s Anti-Corruption System, and is currently involved in the work of the civil society initiative – “Seguridad sin Guerra” — that seeks to prevent the militarization of Mexico.
She has been very active in the women’s movement and ongoing battle for abortion and LGBTQ rights. She has also been an advocate for consumer rights and spearheaded anti-monopoly initiatives that were ultimately incorporated in the 2013 Federal Telecommunications Law. She collaborated closely with the Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes para Ayotzinapa, the independent group sent by the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission to investigate the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa.
She writes a political column for the Mexican newspaper Reforma and the news weekly Proceso,, and was a regular contributor to the Spanish edition of The Washington Post. She was the host of the political talk shows “Entreversiones” and “El País de Uno” on Mexican television. She has been a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times, has published numerous opinion pieces in the Los Angeles newspaper La Opinion and The Wall Street Journal and is a frequent commentator on Mexican politics in the U.S. and Canadian media. She participates in the radio show “Mesa política” hosted by Carmen Aristegui the political talk show “La hora de opinar” hosted by Leo Zuckermann on Foro TV, does a weekly video column for the internet media site Latinus, and is a member of Opinión 51, an initiative to promote editorial content produced by women.
She edited two bestselling collections of essays by prominent Mexican women entitled Gritos y susurros: experiencias intempestivas de 38 mujeres (Grijalbo 2004), Gritos y susurros II: experiencias intempestivas de otras 39 mujeres (Santillana 2010), and also produced a television documentary based on the first book. She wrote a book of political satire in collaboration with novelist Jorge Volpi, México: lo que todo ciudadano quisiera (no) saber de su patria (Santillana 2006). Her book, El País de Uno: Reflexiones para entender y cambiar a México, has sold over 150, 000 copies and was on the bestseller list for over a year. In 2018 she published Manifiesto mexicano: Cómo perdimos el rumbo y cómo recuperarlo. Her recent podcast “El Lado D de la Historia”, centers on how to understand Mexico’s democratic transition and why it is in danger. Her most recent book “¿Qué sigue? Ser ciudadano ante un país en riesgo” was published in November 2023.
She has won numerous awards, including the Juchimán de Plata for contributions to the construction of citizenship in Mexico, the Pedro Sarquis Merrewe award for an exceptional Mexican, the “Voz Latina” Award for commitment to public service and academic excellence from Princeton University. She has been named one of the 300 most influential people in Mexico by the magazine Líderes Mexicanos and she won the National Journalism Award in 2010 for her column “Open Letter to Carlos Slim”. The World Policy Journal named her one of the 14 Latin American Women to “keep an eye on” in 2014. Forbes magazine listed her as one of the 50 most powerful women in Mexico. Quién magazine put her on the top of the list of 50 people who are changing Mexico and Forbes also placed her on the list of the 50 most influential people on Twitter (now X) In 2015 she was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government for her work on democracy, justice, gender equality and human rights.