Amel Ahmed

Amel Ahmed is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on democratic studies, elections, voting systems, legislative politics, party development and voting rights, with historical and comparative attention to Europe and the United States.

Ahmed studies how political institutions and electoral rules shape democratic inclusion, representation and political competition. Her work examines the development of democratic systems, the relationship between electoral reforms and political power, and contemporary public attitudes toward democracy.

She is the author of Democracy and the Politics of Electoral System Choice: Engineering Electoral Dominance, published by Cambridge University Press, and The Regime Question: Foundations of Democratic Governance in Europe and the United States, published by Princeton University Press. She also researches mixed-method designs, historical analysis and comparative research methods.

Ahmed teaches courses in comparative politics, West European politics, American political development, democracy and autocracy, electoral studies and research methods. She holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College, a certificate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.