Mark I. Vail
Worrell Chair of Politics and International Affairs
Department of Politics and International Affairs
Wake Forest University
I joined the Wake Forest faculty in 2021, after fifteen years at Tulane University. I received my Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. My research interests focus on the comparative political economy of advanced industrial societies, with a particular focus on Western Europe, economic and social policy, labor markets and industrial relations, and the influence of political ideas and ideologies. My first book, Recasting Welfare Capitalism: Economic Adjustment in Contemporary France and Germany, was published by Temple University Press in 2010. I have published work in the Journal of Comparative Politics, the European Journal of Political Research, Governance, West European Politics, and the Journal of Common Market Studies, among other venues. My most recent book, Liberalism in Illiberal States: Ideas and Economic Adjustment in Contemporary Europe (Oxford University Press, 2018), analyzes how distinctive national liberal traditions shape patterns of adjustment in times of economic instability. I am currently working on a book on state traditions and governance in Germany, entitled The Hobbled State, which is scheduled to be published by Agenda Publishing in 2025.