Linda J. Cook

Ph.D., Columbia University, 1985
Professor of Political Science, Brown University
Center Associate, Davis Center

Contact Information
Department of Political Science
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
401.863.2505
Linda_Cook@brown.edu

Research Interests
Politics of the Russian Federation, other Post-Soviet States, and East-Central Europe, as well as comparative welfare states. Research focuses on domestic and international influences on welfare states and their transformation, the relationship between democratization and social welfare, and comparative political representation of women, labor, and NGOs.

Current Projects
"Rebuilding Russia's Population: Mothers, Men, and Immigrants"; "Russia's Welfare Regime: The Shift Toward Statism" (under review); "Collective Labor Rights and Labor Market Flexibility in East European Postcommunist States" (in revision); "The Politics and Consequences of Privatizing Social Welfare in Post-Communist States" (in revision); "Oil Wealth and Welfare in the Russian Federation" (in preparation); "Weak States and Their Welfare Regimes" (in preparation).

Selected Publications
(with Carol Nechemias) “Women in the Legislature of the Russian Federation,” in Marilyn Rueschemeyer and Sharon Wolchik, Women in Power: Women Deputies in Postcommunist Parliaments (Indiana University Press with the Wilson Center for Scholars, forthcoming, 2009).

Postcommunist Welfare States: Reform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007).

“Negotiating Welfare in Postcommunist States,” Comparative Politics, vol. 40, no. 1, October, 2007, 41-62.

(with Elena Vinogradova),“NGOs and Social Policy-Making in Russia’s Regions,” Problems of Post-Communism, vol. 53, no. 5, Sept.-Oct., 2006, 28-41.

“State Capacity and Pension Provision” in Timothy Colton and Stephen Holmes, eds., The State after Communism: Governance in the New Russia, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006) (also published in Russian by the Institute for Law and Public Policy, Moscow).