[1] Babones focuses on the "political sociology of democracy, economic development in post-socialist transition economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons".

Babones concludes that BRICS counties can catch up with high-income countries only if their political leaders pursue growth strategies that benefit the entire population.

[12] Markus Heide of Uppsala University found[clarification needed] Babones' "apologetic approach" to ignore the anti-democratic rhetoric of Trump and his supporters.

[11] Babones has since held the January 6 United States Capitol attack to be a "mostly peaceful protest";[14] he argued that Joe Biden was still a bigger threat to democracy on account of being supported by the press.

[15] In September 2022, Babones criticized the democracy indices by Freedom House, V-Dem Institute, and Economist Intelligence Unit for their decision to downgrade India while under Narendra Modi's premiership and called for a retraction; noting their evidence to be flawed and "wildly disproportionate", he blamed the intellectuals who were surveyed for not being objective in their evaluations.

[16][17] Two months later, in a conclave arranged by India Today, speaking on the same locus, Babones accused the Indian intellectuals of being "anti-India and anti-Modi as a class" in remarks that were widely shared in the social media.