Craig Arceneaux
Professor
Fields
- Latin American Politics
- Comparative Political Institutions
- Democratic Transitions
- Civil-Military Relations
Contact Information
- Office: Building 47, Room 11A
- Phone: (805) 756-2842
- E-mail: carcenea@calpoly.edu
About Craig Arceneaux
I joined the faculty in 2001 after completing my M.A. at The Ohio State University (Go Buckeyes!) and my Ph.D. at the University of California, Riverside. My specialties rest in Latin American Politics, Democratization, and Civil-Military Relations. I have published four books, one on military regimes and democratic transitions in South America (Bounded Missions: Military Rule and Democratization in the Southern Cone and Brazil (Penn State Press, 2001)), another on the impact of international influences on political change in Latin America (with David Pion-Berlin,Transforming Latin America: The International and Domestic Origins of Change (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005)), and a textbook for courses in Latin American Politics (Democratic Latin America (Routledge, 2021), and a study of social movements in Latin America (Political Struggle in Latin America (Springer, 2022). I also edited and contributed chapters to The Other World: Issues and Politics of the Developing World (Routledge, 2025). Other work I have done on various Latin American issues has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Bulletin of Latin American Studies, Latin American Politics and Society, Armed Forces and Society, and the Journal of Political and Military Sociology. I worked with the Electoral Integrity Project and contributed articles to two of their books: Election Watchdogs (Oxford 2017) and Challenges of US Elections (Oxford, 2018). Currently, I am focusing on questions of democratic quality and decay, with a chapter on the rule of law in Latin America (Challenges of Globalization, Ino Rossi, ed. 2020), and a developing project on how the military, evangelical groups, and corrupt actors influence the responsiveness of democracy and populist movements in Latin America.
Students at Cal Poly see me in classes such as Latin American Politics, Democracy and Authoritarianism, Global Political Issues, Introduction to Comparative Politics, and Peace and War. But some of the most gratifying educational experiences (for me and the students alike!) come outside of the classroom. I coordinate the Model United Nations program, and have brought students to MUN conferences in Long Beach, San Francisco, Boston, and New York. I have even taken students to international MUN conferences in Brazil, Canada, China, and Ecuador. I have participated in several Cal Poly Study Abroad programs in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and Valladolid, Spain, and worked with Jim Keese in Social Sciences to develop the current study abroad program in Cusco, Peru. Programs such as these complement and extend the educational experience for students, and it has been my pleasure to participate in them.