Michael Albertus
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Michael Albertus is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He studies how countries allocate opportunity and well-being among their citizens and the consequences this has for society, why some countries are democratic and others aren't, and why some societies fall into civil conflict.
His newest book in press, Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies (Basic Books, 2025), examines how land became power, how it shapes power, and how who holds that power determines the fundamental social problems that societies grapple with. He is also the author of Property without Rights: Origins and Consequences of the Property Rights Gap, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy, Coercive Distribution, and Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform. Autocracy and Redistribution and Property Without Rights both won several book awards. |
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“Land Power is a fascinating book on the power of land inequality in history and the large land reshufflings of the past and present. It is a must-read to think about the coming struggles over land in the 21st century.”
– Thomas Piketty, New York Times–bestselling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century “Land has always been a source of economic wealth. This captivating book demonstrates that it has also been a fountainhead of political and social power, profoundly shaping the organization and political structures of many societies.”
– Daron Acemoglu, winner of 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics and coauthor of Why Nations Fail “Now more than ever it's essential to talk about land use with the widest lens possible. Land Power offers new insights into how public and private initiatives worldwide can effectively safeguard ecosystems and societies for future generations of all life.”
– Kristine Tompkins, President and Co-founder of Tompkins Conservation Buy Land Power
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