Dr. Ben W. Ansell is a professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College. His work focuses on both comparative politics and international relations. He is also co-editor of the academic journal Comparative Political Studies. Ansell has published three academic books, "From the Ballot to the Blackboard," in 2010, "Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach," co-authored with David Samuels and published in 2014, and "Inward Conquest: The Modern State and the Revolution in Government that Shook the World," in 2021. His first general audience book, "Why Politics Fails," was published in 2023.