Michael Cain has been a member of the faculty at St. Mary’s College since 1999 and is currently chairman of the Political Science Department. He authored the first external grant award received by the Center in 2002 and was an original member of the Faculty Advisory Committee. He was named Acting Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy in July 2007 after serving two years in Romania as a senior technical advisor to the United States Agency for International Development. He teaches classes on Processes of Democratization, Voting and Legislatures, and Political Philosophy.

Dr. Cain received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Rutgers University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in government and politics from the University of Maryland. He has authored over thirty academic publications and government reports covering a wide range of topics on voting, international development and public policy. Much of his research has focused on ways to improve new democratic institutions and increase the civic engagement of citizens. His work has appeared in national and international academic journals including the Journal of Theoretical Politics, Public Choice, and Energetica. He has provided political commentary on Maryland politics for NPR’s Mark Steiner Show and The Baltimore Sun. Dr. Cain also has been invited lecturer at the College of William and Mary, the World Bank, Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies at Brown University, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Humboldt University and the University of Warsaw.

Prior to joining the faculty Dr. Cain taught political science and public policy at the University of Mississippi, the University of Warsaw and the University of Maryland. He received post-doctorate fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. He has three children and lives in Leonardtown, Maryland with his wife, Virginia Foran-Cain