PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: political science
Italian statesman and writer
Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman, secretary of the Florentine republic, whose most famous work, The Prince (Il Principe), brought him a reputation as an...
French historian and political writer
Alexis de Tocqueville was a political scientist, historian, and politician, best known for Democracy in America, 4 vol. (1835–40), a perceptive analysis of the political and social system of the United...
Irish political scientist
Benedict Anderson was an Irish political scientist, best known for his influential work on the origins of nationalism. Anderson’s family heritage crosses national lines. Benedict inherited his name from...
American scholar
John J. Mearsheimer is a prominent American scholar of international relations best known for his theory of offensive realism. After graduating from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1970,...
American political scientist and educator
Kenneth N. Waltz was an American political scientist and educator best known as the originator of the neorealist (or structural realist) theory of international relations. Waltz was drafted into the U.S....
American political scientist
Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political scientist and philosopher known for her critical writing on Jewish affairs and her study of totalitarianism. Arendt grew up in Hannover, Germany, and...
American political scientist and educator
Robert A. Dahl American political scientist and educator. A leading theorist of political pluralism, Dahl stressed the role in politics played by associations, groups, and organizations. (Read Dahl’s contribution...
American writer and political theorist
Francis Fukuyama is an American writer and political theorist perhaps best known for his belief that the triumph of liberal democracy at the end of the Cold War marked the last ideological stage in the...
political scientist and educator
Carole Pateman is a British political scientist and educator known for her contribution to democratic theory and feminist political theory. After leaving school at 16 years of age and working in lesser...
American political scientist and educator
Robert O. Keohane is an American political scientist, international-relations scholar, and educator. He is a leading figure within neoliberal institutionalism, an approach to international relations that...
American political scientist and educator
Alexander Wendt is a German-born American political scientist and educator, one of the most-influential theorists of the social-constructivist approach to the study of international relations. Wendt was...
American political scientist
William Riker was an American political scientist who popularized the use of mathematical models, and in particular game theory, in the study of political behaviour. After moving with his family to Indiana...
Hungarian political scientist and sociologist
István Bibó was a Hungarian political scientist, sociologist, and expert on the philosophy of law. Bibó became a role model for dissident intellectuals in the late communist era. Bibó came from a Calvinist...
American political scientist
Samuel P. Huntington was an American political scientist, consultant to various U.S. government agencies, and an important political commentator in national debates on U.S. foreign policy in the late 20th...
German jurist and political theorist
Carl Schmitt was a German conservative jurist and political theorist, best known for his critique of liberalism, his definition of politics as based on the distinction between friends and enemies, and...
American scholar
Roderick P. Hart is an American scholar noted for his work in the areas of political language, media and politics, presidential studies, and rhetorical analysis. He invented a computer-aided text-analysis...
American political scientist
Robert D. Putnam is an American political scientist and educator best known for his study of social capital. Just before Putnam turned one year old, the United States declared war on Japan, and his father,...
British political scientist
Harold Joseph Laski was a British political scientist, educator, and prominent member of the British Labour Party who turned to Marxism in his effort to interpret the “crisis in democracy” in Britain during...
American political scientist
Harold Lasswell was an influential political scientist known for seminal studies of power relations and of personality and politics and for other major contributions to contemporary behavioral political...
Canadian politician
Preston Manning is a Canadian politician who was the founder and leader of the Reform Party (1987–2000). Manning was born into a political family. His father, Ernest, was leader of the Alberta Social Credit...
American political scientist
Emily Greene Balch was an American sociologist, political scientist, economist, and pacifist, a leader of the women’s movement for peace during and after World War I. She received the Nobel Prize for Peace...
French sociologist
Raymond Aron was a French sociologist, historian, and political commentator known for his skepticism of ideological orthodoxies. The son of a Jewish jurist, Aron obtained his doctorate in 1930 from the...
British statesman
James Bryce, Viscount Bryce was a British politician, diplomat, and historian best known for his highly successful ambassadorship to the United States (1907–13) and for his study of U.S. politics, The...
German-American political scientist
Hans Morgenthau was a German-born American political scientist and historian noted as a leading analyst of the role of power in international politics. Educated first in Germany at the Universities of...
American political scientist
Arthur F. Bentley was an American political scientist and philosopher known for his work in epistemology, logic, and linguistics and for his contributions to the development of a behavioral methodology...
Japanese political theorist and author
Danshaku Katō Hiroyuki was a Japanese writer, educator, and political theorist who was influential in introducing Western ideas into 19th-century Japan. After the fall of the shogunate in 1868, he served...
American political scientist
Murray Edelman was an American political scientist who was best known for his work on the symbolic and subjective nature of politics to reveal the latent meanings behind political activities and behaviour....
German political scientist
Arnold Brecht was an exiled German public servant, who became a prominent political scientist and made major contributions in the area of clarifying scientific theory. After studying at several universities,...
American sociologist and political scientist
Seymour Martin Lipset was an American sociologist and political scientist, whose work in social structures, comparative politics, labour unions, and public opinion brought him international renown. After...
American political scientist
Sarah Wambaugh was an American political scientist who was recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on the subject of plebiscites. Wambaugh graduated from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, in 1902....
American political scientist
Gabriel Abraham Almond was an American political scientist noted for his comparative studies of political systems and his analysis of political development. Almond received a Ph.D. from the University...
American political scientist
V. O. Key, Jr. was a U.S. political scientist known for his studies of the U.S. political process and for his contributions to the development of a more empirical and behavioral political science. Educated...
German political theorist
Johannes Althusius was a German political theorist who was the intellectual father of modern federalism and an advocate of popular sovereignty. After philosophic and legal studies in Switzerland, Althusius...
American political scientist
Quincy Wright was an American political scientist and authority on international law known for classic studies of war and international relations. Wright received his B.A. from Lombard College, Galesburg,...
Swedish political scientist
Axel Brusewitz was a leading Swedish political scientist who was known for authoritative studies of Swedish constitutional history and Swiss popular democracy. Brusewitz resettled in Sweden from Finland...
American sociologist
Robert Morrison MacIver was a Scottish-born sociologist, political scientist, and educator who expressed belief in the compatibility of individualism and social organization. His creative power to make...
British political scientist
Graham Wallas was a British educator, public official, and political scientist known for his contributions to the development of an empirical approach to the study of human behaviour. Wallas studied at...
American sociologist
Morris Janowitz was an innovative American sociologist and political scientist who made major contributions to sociological theory and to the study of prejudice, urban issues, and patriotism. His work...
Kenyan-American political scientist
Ali Al Amin Mazrui was a Kenyan American political scientist who was widely regarded as one of East Africa’s foremost political scholars. Mazrui, the son of a prominent Islamic judge, received a scholarship...
American political scientist
Larry Sabato is an American political scientist known for his commentary on U.S. elections. Sabato was the founder and director of the University of Virginia’s nonpartisan Center for Politics. He attended...
American educator and political scientist
Frank J. Goodnow was an educator, long-time president of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and a political scientist known for his contributions to the study of public administration. Goodnow earned...
Belarusian political scientist
Moisey Ostrogorsky was a Belorussian political scientist known for his pioneering study of comparative party organization. Ostrogorsky studied law at St. Petersburg, and after working for a number of years...
president of India
Shankar Dayal Sharma was an Indian lawyer and politician who was president of India from 1992 to 1997. Sharma pursued his higher education at Agra and Lucknow universities. After earning a doctorate in...
German political scientist
Hermann Heller was a German political scientist who was responsible for the revival of political theory in Germany. Heller taught at the universities of Kiel, Leipzig, Berlin, and Frankfurt and left Germany...
American political scientist and sociologist
Theda Skocpol is an American political scientist and sociologist whose work significantly shaped the understanding of states and social policy. Skocpol attended Michigan State University (B.A., 1969) and...
Polish bishop
Wawrzyniec Goślicki was a Roman Catholic bishop and diplomat whose political writings were precursory to Catholic liberalism. In 1569 he joined the royal chancery and served two Polish kings, Sigismund...
Swedish political scientist
Rudolf Kjellén was a Swedish political scientist and politician whose conservative theory of the state was influential beyond the borders of Sweden. Kjellén was educated at the University of Uppsala, and...
British political scientist
Robert McKenzie was a Canadian-born British political scientist and television commentator on electoral politics. In the latter role, McKenzie popularized to the British public the word psephology (the...
American political scientist
Edward Samuel Corwin was an American political scientist and authority on U.S. political and constitutional law. Corwin earned an A.B. from the University of Michigan (1900) and a Ph.D. from the University...
Canadian philosopher
George Grant was a Canadian philosopher who achieved national renown with his pessimistic 97-page book, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (1965). Grant was educated at Queen’s University,...
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