Ethan Scheiner is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Davis.
Research and Teaching Focus
- Comparative Politics, Politics & Sports, Japanese Politics, Political Parties, Electoral Systems, Elections
Education & Previous Experience
- 2002-2004: Stanford University, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for International Studies
- 2001-2002: Harvard University, Advanced Research Fellow in the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
- 2001: Ph.D., Political Science, Duke University
- 1998: M.A., Political Science, Duke University
- 1994: M.A., Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- 1991: B.A., Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz
Books
- Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team That Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People—and Olympic Gold (2023 at Pegasus Books): During the height of the Cold War, a group of small-town young men lead their underdog hockey team from the little country of Czechoslovakia against the Soviet Union, the juggernaut in their sport. As they battled on the ice, the young players would keep their people’s quest for freedom alive, and forge a way to fight back against the authoritarian forces that sought to crush them.
- Democracy Without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State (2006 at Cambridge University Press) offers an explanation for opposition party failure in Japan, a democracy dominated by one party since 1955.
- Electoral Systems and Political Context: How the Effects of Rules Vary across New and Established Democracies (co-authored with Robert Moser, 2012 at Cambridge University Press), examines elections around the world to understand when electoral rules will – and will not – have the effects typically expected of them.
- Co-editor, along with Robert Pekkanen, Steven Reed, and Daniel Smith, of the Japan Decides book series editions that offered analyses of the 2012, 2014, and 2017 lower house elections in Japan.
Articles
Professor Scheiner has published articles on political parties, elections and electoral systems in the American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Journal of East Asian Studies, Journal of Japanese Studies, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.
Teaching
Professor Scheiner’s courses present substantively interesting events in a fun manner to help students learn to better analyze the world around them.
- In Politics & Sports (POL12A), students learn about world and American politics of the 20th century through fascinating sports stories.
- In Comparative Electoral Systems (POL140A), students learn how the rules we use to elect politicians shape the kind of politics we end up with.
- In Introduction to Comparative Politics (POL2), students learn how to use social science approaches to better understand the world around them.
- He also teaches a number of courses on comparative politics and research design at the graduate level.
For other information on his work, please see Professor Scheiner’s CV.