Salvatore Babones is a quantitative comparative sociologist whose current research focuses on the political sociology of democracy. In the past he has also published on economic development in post-socialist transition economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons. He is the author or editor of fourteen books and several dozen academic research articles. He writes extensively on public policy issues, and is a widely-cited commentator on Australian higher education. His short book The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts was named among the Best on Politics 2018 by the Wall Street Journal. He is currently researching a book on Indian democracy.