Forrest Colburn

Professor Forrest D. Colburn is a scholar focusing on governance and economic development in the poorer countries of the world.  In addition to his appointment at the City University of New York (CUNY), Professor Colburn has a long-standing and continuing association with the Latin American management school, the INCAE Business School.  Professor Colburn taught for a decade at Princeton University, and has been a visiting professor at New York University (NYU), Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), and the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Chile).  Professor Colburn has worked, too, with the International Labor Organization (ILO), mostly in Latin America, and with business organizations (cámaras) throughout the region.  Professor Colburn has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study (in Princeton), and has been a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship.

Professor Colburn is the author of The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries and Latin America at the End of Politics, both published by the Princeton University Press.  Earlier books were studies of the Nicaraguan Revolution.  Professor Colburn’s most recent book is Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).  Professor Colburn is the editor of Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, a project undertaken with James C. Scott.  Professor Colburn’s articles have appeared in many academic journals, most prominently in the Journal of Democracy.

Academic Interests

• Governance and economic development in the poorer countries of the world
• Influence of ideas on politics
• Interplay of politics and economic policy

Research

• Course of politics in contemporary Latin America
• Efforts at revolutionary change in the poorer countries of the world

Honors

• Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2006-2007

Publications

• Colburn, F.D. & Cruz S., A. (2016). Trouble in the "Northern Triangle." Journal of Democracy, 27(2), 80-86.
• Colburn, F.D. & Cruz S., A. (2014). El Salvador's Beleaguered Democracy." Journal of Democracy, 25(3), 149-158.
• Colburn, F. D., & Cruz S., A. (2012). Personalism and populism in Nicaragua. Journal of Democracy, 23(2), 104-118.
• Colburn, F. D., & Uphoff, N. (2012). Common expositional problems in students’ papers and theses. PS: Political Science & Politics, 45(2), 291-297.
• Colburn, F. D. (2012). Nicaragua Forlorn. World Policy Journal, 29(1), 91-100.
• Colburn, Forrest. Review of Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chavez Authoritarian Experiment. In Perspectives on Politics 9 (2011): 733-734.
• Colburn, F.D. & Trejos, A. (2010). Democracy Undermined: Constitutional Subterfuge in Latin America. Dissent, 57, 11-15.
• Colburn, F.D. & Trejos, A. (2010). Forrest D. Colburn and Alberto Trejos Respond. Dissent, 57, 78-80.
• El Vuelco de El Salvador. J. of Democracy en Español, 2, 157-167. (2010)
• Exploring Peruvian Nationality: The Photography of Javier Silva-Meinel. Tribal Art, 58, 120-129. (2010)
• América latina: Prisionera de los commodities. INCAE Business Review¸1, 44-49. (2009)
• The turnover in El Salvador. Journal of Democracy, 20, 143-152. (2009)
• Latin America: Captive to commodities. Dissent, 56, 29-31. (2009)
• Asia se cierne sobre América latina. INCAE Business Review, 1(6), 46-50. (2008)
• Latin America: Captive to commodities. Dissent, 29-31. (2008)
• Varieties of Liberalism in Central America: Nation-States as Works in Progress, University of Texas Press, 2007
• Latin America at the End of Politics, Princeton University Press, 2002
• The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries, Princeton University Press, 1994
• My Car in Managua, University of Texas Press, 1991 (sixth printing, 2005)
• Managing the Commanding Heights: Nicaragua’s State Enterprises, University of California Press, 1990
• Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua: State, Class, and the Dilemmas of Agrarian Policy, University of California Press, 1986