Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel is Director of the "Democracy and Democratisation" research program at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB) and Professor of Political Science at the Humboldt University Berlin. He is a member of a number of key bodies, including the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is also a non-party member of the Basic Values Commission of the Executive Committee of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). His most recent publications include Demokratie und Krise. Zum schwierigen Verhältnis zwischen Theorie und Empirie (ed., 2015); Handbuch Transformationsforschung (2015, together with Raj Kollmorgen and Hans-Jürgen Wagener); The Future of Representative Democracy (2011, together with Sonia Alonso and John Keane); Systemtransformation (2010); Social Democracy in Power. The Capacity to Reform (2008), which has been translated into German, Chinese and Vietnamese; the 2-volume Defekte Demokratie (2002, 2006); and more than 200 journal articles on such subjects as democracy and democratisation, 21st-century dictatorships, political parties, comparative public policy, the future of social democracy, welfare states and social justice.

For more information visit: https://www.wzb.eu/en/persons/wolfgang-merkel