About

Stefan Kruse

Political Sociologist | Health Consultant | Data Analyst

I am a political sociologist and cross-cultural researcher with a Master's and PhD in Economics and Social Sciences. My work bridges academic research and consulting in public health and data analysis, translating insights from research into practice and from practice back into research. I study how population health, political behavior, and democratic governance intersect in shaping development trajectories, with particular attention to how civic engagement can strengthen health systems. This theme is at the center of my recently published book, How Ordinary People Make Aid Work (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), which shows how civic participation and cultural contexts influence the effectiveness of health aid and contribute to sustainable development.As a Health Consultant, I apply my research expertise in coordinating and implementing different development projects, with a focus on improving service delivery and advancing innovations in public and digital health.Across my publications, I have engaged with central debates in comparative politics and political sociology, analyzing the dynamics of democratization, autocratization, and regime change; the foundations of political legitimacy; and the cultural and cognitive biases that lead citizens to misperceive authoritarian contexts as democratic. I have also published on modernization and development in the Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Sociology and co-authored The Cool Water Effect, which examines how ecological conditions shaped the emergence of individualistic cultures and democratic institutions. Alongside academic work, I have collaborated with the OECD on self-employment and job quality in Europe, situating labor market dynamics within the broader framework of modernization and development outcomes.In parallel, I work on methodological debates in impact evaluation and survey research, addressing key challenges in cross-cultural analyses of social and political change. I also provide training in applied quantitative social science methods, equipping researchers and practitioners with the tools needed for rigorous evaluation and policy analysis.

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Publications

How Ordinary People Make Aid Work. Civic Engagement and Health Aid Effectiveness. 2025. Stefan Kruse. Johns Hopkins University Press. https://doi.org/10.56021/9781421452548The Cool Water Effect. The Geo-Climatic Source of Western Exceptionalism. 2025. With Christian Welzel, Lennart Brunkert, and Steven A. Brieger. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81861-5The job quality of self-employment in Europe: A longitudinal perspective. 2025. With S. Brieger, and J. Potter. OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Papers, No. 73, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/646e6778-enAgainst the Mainstream: On the Limitations of Non-Invariance Diagnostics. 2023. With Christian Welzel and Lennart Brunkert. Sociological Methods & Research, 52(3), 1438–1455. https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241221091754Non-Invariance? An Overstated Problem with Misconceived Causes. 2023. With Christian Welzel, Lennart Brunkert, and Ronald F. Inglehart. Sociological Methods & Research, 52(3), 1368–1400. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124121995521Modernization. 2023. Stefan Kruse. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Sociology, edited by Maria Grasso and Marco Guigni, 301–305. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803921235.00083Changes in the Working Environments of the Self-Employed: A European Perspective. 2022. OECD Expert Paper. With S. Brieger and D. Storey. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/ece3a6d6-enWhy the Future Is (Still) Democratic. 2022. With Christian Welzel and Lennart Brunkert. Journal of Democracy, 33(1), 156–162. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0011Democracy Confused: When People Mistake the Absence of Democracy for Its Presence. 2019. With Maria Ravlik and Christian Welzel. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(3), 315–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022118821437A Tale of Culture-Bound Regime Evolution: The Centennial Democratic Trend and Its Recent Reversal. 2019. With Lennart Brunkert and Christian Welzel. Democratization, 26(3), 422–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2018.1542430Pitfalls in the Study of Democratization: Testing the Emancipatory Theory of Democracy. 2017. With Christian Welzel and Ronald Inglehart. British Journal of Political Science, 47(2), 463–472. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123415000605

How Ordinary People Make Aid Work

Reviews

Aid agencies often try to involve aid recipients in aid projects, but the donors seldom move beyond buzzwords and token efforts. This remarkable study shows what matters instead for effective aid is the citizens' own effort to hold the government and aid providers accountable. This path-breaking book will open your eyes to the role of ordinary people striving for their own development.
— William R. Easterly, New York UniversityAt last, a book that prioritizes understanding how and when—over determining whether—foreign aid 'works.' Kruse compellingly explains how efforts to take context seriously, and to forge mutually respectful relations between givers and receivers, enable beneficence to flow in both directions. This is, and has always been, humanity's best hope for making the world a better place.
— Michael Woolcock, World Bank and Harvard UniversityHow Ordinary People Make Aid Work is a timely and rigorously researched contribution to debates on effective development assistance. With global scope and strong empirical grounding, it convincingly demonstrates how civic engagement enhances the impact of health aid. Methodologically sophisticated yet accessibly written, the book offers valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners.
— Pamela Paxton, University of Texas at AustinBreaking new ground, this book brings together an extraordinary amount of data to demonstrate the difference that the actions of ordinary citizens make to the effectiveness of health aid in particular, as well as to democracy and development more broadly. It will quickly become a classic in the field of participation and citizen action.
— John Gaventa, Institute of Development Studies

What makes health-related development cooperation truly effective?

In How Ordinary People Make Aid Work, Stefan Kruse argues that the answer lies in the power of ordinary citizens. By examining the role of community organizations and social movements, Kruse challenges conventional approaches to aid, showing that true accountability requires more than institutional reforms or participatory spaces that offer citizens a seat at the table.Through rigorous analysis and compelling case studies, the book reveals how traditional forms of exercising voice—especially in politically challenging contexts—drive the success of donor-funded health projects. Kruse demonstrates that reducing infant mortality since the 1990s owes more to an engaged citizenry than to formal accountability mechanisms. Surprisingly, state capacity and democratic institutions show little effect on the success of health aid once citizen involvement is accounted for. By bridging macroeconomic studies of aid effectiveness with research on political behavior, these findings underscore the indispensable role of civic engagement in building resilient health systems.How Ordinary People Make Aid Work critiques the limitations of traditional, top-down development models and advocates for empowering communities to lead their own progress. It highlights how social ties and collective action equip citizens to oversee health projects and create sustainable solutions to public health challenges. Offering fresh insights for policymakers, development practitioners, and scholars, this book redefines what it takes to make aid truly impactful.

Contact

For inquiries regarding my work or publications, please get in touch via email. To stay updated, you can also follow me on the social media channels below.