Mary Breeding
Welcome!
I am a Consultant in the Independent Evaluation Group at the World
Bank, and I teach a South Asia politics course at American University.
I am broadly interested in the performance of democratic institutions
in developing countries.
My ongoing academic research seeks to understand how informal
institutions—vote banks, patron-client linkages, social norms,
customs, and ethnic politics—influence both democratic institutions
and economic development outcomes in low-income and middle-income
countries.
Prior to becoming a Consultant, I was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow
in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (2008-2010)
and a Warren E. Miller Fellow at the American Political Science
Association (2007-2008). I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from
American University in 2008. I have also been a Visiting Scholar at
the Institute for Economic and Social Change (ISEC) in Bangalore,
India since 2005.
Specialization: Politics of Developing Democracies, South Asia,
Program Evaluation
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