This is a list of notable political scientists.
See the list of political theorists for those
who study political theory. See also political
science.
== A ==
Alan Abramowitz – expert in American politics,
political parties, ideological realignment,
elections, and voting behavior; professor
at Emory University
Brooke Ackerly - expert on grounded normative
theory, feminist theory, feminist international
relations, and scholar activism, professor
at Vanderbilt University
David Adamany – public law specialist and
President of Temple University
John Aldrich – political parties expert
at Duke University, author of Why Parties?
Graham Allison – early proponent of the
bureaucratic politics model, author of Essence
of Decision, national security specialist,
former Dean of Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University
Gabriel A. Almond – originator of the culturist
movement in comparative politics
Gar Alperovitz – political economist
Ambedkar – jurist, economist and Chairman
of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution
of India
William Anderson – specialist in public
administration
Michael E. Arth - author of Democracy and
the Common Wealth, public policy analyst,
founded two public policy wikis. Special focus
on electoral reform, population, and environmental
issues.
Robert Axelrod – expert on game theory and
complexity theory, wrote extensively on the
Prisoner's Dilemma, former president of American
Political Science Association
== B ==
Fatih Baja – Gar Yunis University teacher
and member of the National Transitional Council
in charge of political affairs
Moniz Bandeira – Brazilian writer, professor,
political scientist, historian and poet
Benjamin Barber – proponent of participatory
democracy and local governance teaching at
the University of Maryland School of Public
Policy at the University of Maryland College
Park
James David Barber – developed a classification
system of the personality types of American
presidents, successfully predicted Richard
Nixon's resignation from the office of the
president
Stephen Barber – noted for his work on political
strategy and political economy, author of
Political Strategy
Michael Barnett – specialist in international
relations
Thomas P.M. Barnett – security strategist
Simion Bărnuţiu – noted for his work on
political strategy in Austria and Romania
Larry Bartels – democracy and voting expert
at Vanderbilt University
Gad Barzilai – Law and Politics, Human Rights
and Politics, Communities and Law at University
of Washington
Richard K. Betts – prize-winning author
in a number of political science areas
Mark Bevir – professor of political science
and Director of the Center for British Studies
at the University of California, Berkeley;
known for his work on governance
Thomas A. Birkland – author of Lessons of
Disaster
Duncan Black – responsible for unearthing
the work of many early political scientists,
including Charles Dodgson
Hans T. Blokland – author of Freedom and
Culture in Western Society and Modernization
and its political consequences
Jean Blondel – comparative politics at University
of Siena, emeritus at European University
Institute
Jean-Charles de Borda – 18th-century mathematician
who devised the Borda count
Steven Brams – expert on voting systems
Ahron Bregman – expert on the Arab–Israeli
conflict
Ian Bremmer – political risk specialist
Stephen Brooks – international relations
scholar
Robert X. Browning – specialist in American
politics and chief archivist for C-SPAN
Zbigniew Brzezinski – Polish American political
scientist, geostrategist, and statesman; served
as United States National Security Advisor
to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981;
in September 2007 during a speech on the Iraq
war, Obama introduced Brzezinski as "one of
our most outstanding thinkers"
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita – pioneering game
theorist with applications to international
relations, author of selectorate theory, seminal
book The War Trap
Ralph Bunche – American political scientist
and diplomat; received the 1950 Nobel Peace
Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine;
first person of color to win
Walter Dean Burnham – expert in the field
of realigning elections, emeritus at University
of Texas at Austin
David Butler – pioneer of modern British
political science, invented the concept of
swing
== C ==
Ira Carmen – co-founder of the social science
subdiscipline of genetics and politics
Edward Hallett Carr – international relations
theorist
Alfredo Castillero Hoyos – democracy and
human rights; former member of the United
Nations's Human Rights Committee
George Catlin (1896–1979) – English political
scientist and philosopher; strong proponent
of Anglo-America cooperation; worked for many
years as a professor at Cornell University
Partha Chatterjee – Indian postcolonial
critic, political and social scientist
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri – international
relations, Indology at Institute of Commonwealth
Studies
John Coakley – specialist in ethnic conflict
and Irish politics
Benjamin Cohen – leader in the field of
international political economy
Stephen P. Cohen – Middle East specialist
James Smoot Coleman – early Africanist,
founded the UCLA African Studies Center
Josep Colomer – institutionalist, comparativist,
and game theorist scholar
Marquis de Condorcet – 18th-century mathematician
and philosopher who contributed the often
used "Condorcet criterion" and devised the
concept of a Condorcet method
Ralph W. Conant – author of The Prospects
for Revolution and Toward a More Perfect Union:
The Governance of Metropolitan America
Philip Converse – public opinion scholar,
author of The Nature of Belief Systems in
Mass Publics
Timothy E. Cook – politics and media
Clyde Coombs – voting systems expert, designed
"Coombs' method"
Philip Cowley – author of Revolts and Rebellions
== D ==
Robert A. Dahl – American politics specialist,
author of On Democracy
Jouke de Vries – Frisian politician and
professor at the university of Leiden
Ronald Deibert – Canadian political scientist
and founder and director of the Citizen Lab
at the University of Toronto
Daniel Deudney – writer and associate professor
at Johns Hopkins University; author of Bounding
Power: Republican Security Theory from the
Polis to the Global Village
Dan Reiter – political scientist, specialized
on military conflicts and war; Professor at
Emory University; author of How Wars End
Karl Deutsch – political scientist, focused
on political communication
Larry Diamond – comparative democratization
specialist; professor at Stanford University
Thomas Diez – Chair in International Relations
at the University of Birmingham
John DiIulio – American politics expert
at the University of Pennsylvania
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (also known as Lewis
Carroll) – author of Alice in Wonderland
and professor of mathematics at the University
of Oxford; devised Dodgson's method of voting
Robert Donaldson – professor at University
of Tulsa and specialist in US/Russian foreign
policy
Anthony Downs – has contributed to democratic
theory, elections studies
Donald Downs – professor at University of
Wisconsin; researcher for Independent Institute
Michael W. Doyle – international relations
theorist, author of Empires
Daniel Drezner – professor at Tufts University,
specializing in international politics
Murray Dry – professor at Middlebury College,
specializing in constitutional law
John Dryzek – professor at the Australian
National University, specializing in deliberative
democracy and environmental politics
John Dunn – political theorist at the University
of Cambridge
Maurice Duverger – French lawyer and sociologist
responsible for Duverger's law
Rand Dyck – Canadian politics expert and
professor at Carleton University
Thomas R. Dye – elite theory vs. pluralism;
author of The Irony of Democracy and Who's
Running America?
== E ==
David Easton – originator of systemic theory
Daniel J. Elazar – American federalism and
political culture scholar, founder of the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, political
science professor at Bar Ilan (Israel) and
Temple University
Jean Bethke Elshtain – American political
philosopher focusing on gender, ethics, American
democracy, and international relations
Jon Elster – Norwegian social and political
theorist authored works in the philosophy
of social science and rational choice theory
and a notable proponent of Analytical Marxism
Cynthia Enloe – international relations
scholar focusing on Feminism in international
relations, editor for such scholarly journals
as Signs and the International Feminist Journal
of Politics
== F ==
James D. Fearon
Peter D. Feaver – international security
expert
David Fellman – Constitutional scholar
Richard Fenno – Congress scholar, author
of Home Style: House Members in their Districts
Thomas Ferguson – politics and economics
Samuel Finer – academic and author on political
science and history of government
Norman Finkelstein – author on political
science, notable for The Holocaust Industry
Martha Finnemore – international relations
and international organizations scholar
Morris P. Fiorina – American politics; proposed
retrospective vote theory
Peter Fishburn – operations analysis and
probability theory expert
Keith Fitzgerald – immigration politics
expert
James H. Fowler – expert on political participation,
the evolution of cooperation, and social network
theory (UCSD)
Daniel P. Franklin – American politics;
politics of the presidency and Politics and
Film
Annette Baker Fox – international relations
scholar
William T. R. Fox – international relations
theorist, coiner of the term "superpower"
Ernst Fraenkel
Francis Fukuyama – international political
theory and biopolitics
Archon Fung
== G ==
Michael Gallagher
Scott Gates – specialist in international
relations
Anthony Giddens – political sociologist
originator of the Third Way
Robert Gilpin – international political
economy specialist
Benjamin Ginsberg – professor at Johns Hopkins
University focusing on American politics
Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson – Professor
of Political Science at the University of
Iceland focusing on political theory
Marianne Githens – political scientist,
feminist, author, professor, and co-founder
of the Women's Study Program at Goucher College
Sheldon Goldman – expert on American federal
courts; professor at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst
David F. Gordon – political risk specialist,
former US Director of Policy Planning
Harold Foote Gosnell – research and writings
on American politics, elections, and political
parties in political science
Colin Gray – international security
Donald Green – Professor of Political Science
at Columbia University focusing on field experiments
in American politics
Ted Robert Gurr – specialist on conflict
and violence
Amy Gutmann – political theory expert; President
of the University of Pennsylvania (2004–present)
== H ==
Michael Haas – Emeritus Professor of Political
Science, University of Hawai'i
Jacob Hacker – Professor of Political Science
at Yale University
Paul Y. Hammond – American foreign policy
and national security specialist at University
of Pittsburgh and elsewhere
Harry Harding – China specialist
Thomas Hare – devised single transferable
vote (also known as Hare's method)
Jeremy Harris – American politics specialist
Michael Hart – British twentieth-century
politics specialist
Louis Hartz – American author of The Liberal
Tradition in America
Colin Hay – influential British political
scientist
Marc Hetherington – author of Why Trust
Matters; offered a new participation paradigm
Christopher J. Hill – international relations
scholar, Professor and Director of the Cambridge
Centre of International Studies
Roger Hilsman – aide to John F. Kennedy,
Columbia University professor, and prolific
author
Thomas Holbrook – public opinion and elections
research, author Do Campaigns Matter?
Christopher Hood – author of The Art of
the State and A Government that Worked Better
and Cost Less?
Donald L. Horowitz – pioneered political
science models for assessing ethnic conflict
Mark Huddleston – former President of Ohio
Wesleyan University and President of the University
of New Hampshire
Samuel P. Huntington – author of Clash of
Civilizations and The Third Wave: Democratization
in the Late Twentieth Century; comparativist
== I ==
Kancha Ilaiah – Dalit scholar and social
scientist
Ronald Inglehart – professor at the University
of Michigan; founder of the World Values Survey
== J ==
David J. Jackson – Entertainment/celebrity
and politics expert
Gary Jacobson – Constitutional law expert
Robert Jervis – international security specialist
Chalmers Johnson – comparative theorist
Jason A. Johnson – campaign management
Loch K. Johnson – United States intelligence
expert
Charles O. Jones – specialist in American
politics
Bertrand de Jouvenel – French political
scientist; co-founder of Mont Pelerin Society
== K ==
Nina Kasniunas – author and the Arsht Professor
in Ethics and Leadership at Goucher College
Peter Katzenstein – professor at Cornell,
former president of the American Political
Science Association
Ira Katznelson – specialist in American
and comparative politics
Dennis Kavanagh
Michael Keating – specialist in nationalism,
European integration and regionalism
Edmond Keller – specialist in African politics
Willmoore Kendall – political theorist;
teacher of William F. Buckley, Jr.
Robert O. Keohane – interdependence theory
author
Ben Kerkvliet – specialist in comparative
politics
Cornelius Kerwin – President of American
University
V.O. Key, Jr. – elections, parties and public
opinion scholar
Gary King – professor at Harvard, political
methodologist
John W. Kingdon – specialist in American
politics
Grayson L. Kirk – specialist in international
relations and President of Columbia University
Henry Kissinger – former Secretary of State
and National Security Advisor to President
Richard M. Nixon
Herbert Kitschelt – author on new radical
right parties
Stephen D. Krasner – international regimes
author, Director of Policy Planning under
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and professor
at Stanford University
Michael Krassa – elections, social context,
architecture and society; lobbyist, consultant,
political sociologist and Chair of Human Dimensions
of Environmental Systems department at University
of Illinois at Urbana
Oskar Krejčí – theory of international
relations, elections and political psychology,
former advisor to two Czechoslovak premieres
Sarah Kreps — foreign and defense policy,
nuclear proliferation, and government transparency
James Kurth
Will Kymlicka – originated the theoretical
foundations of multiculturalism
== L ==
Guy Laforest – liberalism (John Locke) scholar;
Quebec and Canadian politics specialist
Harold Lasswell – political communications,
pioneered early efforts to establish the policy
sciences and influential contributor to the
Stages Heuristic
Jack Layton – former leader of the New Democratic
Party of Canada, Ph.D in Political Science
Richard Ned Lebow – constructivist, Cold
War expert, author of Tragic Vision of Politics
Michael Leifer – international relations,
South Asian Studies, London School of Economics
Margaret Levi – scholar of comparative political
economy, labor politics, democratic theory,
former American Political Science Association
president
Carl Levy – Goldsmith's College, University
of London
Robert C. Lieberman – scholar of American
politics and provost of Johns Hopkins University
Arend Lijphart – originator of consociationalism
Juan Linz – democracy specialist
Dan Lipinski – U.S. House of Representatives
(IL-D, 3rd)
Seymour Martin Lipset – political theorist
on democracy and development and parties;
taught at Stanford University
Leslie Lipson – was scholar of comparative
politics and democracy at UC Berkeley
Ramon Llull – discoverer of Condorcet Criterion
and Borda Count
Theodore Lowi – major scholar of American
politics at Cornell University
Ian Lustick – state territoriality ethnic
conflict and computer modelling in political
science; University of Pennsylvania
== M ==
Niccolò Machiavelli – considered the originator
of historically based political science; author
of The Prince
Jane Mansbridge – scholar of social movements,
gender, and democratic engagement (Harvard
University), former American Political Science
Association president
Harvey C. Mansfield – political philosophy
(Harvard University)
Zeev Maoz – Arab-Israeli Conflict and international
relations expert
Jose M. Maravall – political economist
Helen Margetts – Director of the Oxford
Internet Institute
David Marsh – influential British political
scientist
Juraj Marusiak – Slovak expert for Central
and Eastern Europe
David R. Mayhew – U.S. legislative behavior
and political parties expert
James McAllister – international affairs
John McCormick – specialist in European
Union politics
Michael McFaul – Russia specialist, professor
and director of the Center on Democracy, Development,
and the Rule of Law at Stanford University
John McGarry – ethnic conflict specialist
John Mearsheimer – international relations
theorist and national security expert
Samuel Merrill III – voting behavior and
party competition
George Michael – specialist in right-wing
extremism
David Miller – political philosopher, specialized
in theories of social justice
Charles Mills – political philosopher specialising
in race relations; author of The Racial Contract
Terry M. Moe – specialist in American politics
Malcolm Moos – former President of the University
of Minnesota
Andrew Moravcsik – professor at Princeton
University, liberal IR theorist, specialist
on European Union politics
Hans Morgenthau – realist, international
relations specialist
James D. Morrow – international relations
expert and game theorist
Rebecca Morton – expert in American Politics,
Political Economy, and Experimental Methods;
professor at New York University
Michael Munger – trained as an economist,
chair of political science at Duke University,
running for governor of North Carolina as
a Libertarian
Clark A. Murdock – Senior Adviser, Center
for Strategic and International Studies
== N ==
Arthur Naftalin – specialist in American
politics and former Mayor of Minneapolis,
Minnesota
Amrita Narlikar – President of the German
Institute of Global and Area Studies and former
Director of the University of Cambridge Centre
for Rising Powers
Antonio Negri
Franz Leopold Neumann – known for analysis
of National Socialism
David Nolan – founder of the United States
Libertarian Party
Douglass North – Nobel laureate
Pippa Norris – Harvard comparative political
scientist
Philip Norton – British politics expert
Joseph Nye – "soft power" international
security specialist; Kennedy School Dean
== O ==
Brendan O'Leary – ethnic conflict specialist
Cornelius O'Leary – Irish historian and
political scientist
Bertell Ollman – political theorist
Mancur Olson – international political economy
specialist; expert on collective action problems;
taught at the University of Maryland, College
Park
A.F.K. Organski – developed power transition
theory in his 1958 book World Politics
Elinor Ostrom – specialist on common pool
resources; winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize
for Economics
== P ==
Thomas Pangle – political theorist at University
of Texas at Austin
Michael Parenti – political scientist and
author
Vilfredo Pareto
W. Robert Parks – former President of Iowa
State University
Gianfranco Pasquino – Italian political
scientist; electoral systems, comparative
politics
Sergei M. Plekhanov – Russia relations expert
Dianne Pinderhughes – scholar of race and
gender inequality & public policy, former
American Political Science Association president
Jose R. Ponte – political scientist and
author Catholic University of Tachira
Nelson W. Polsby – American politics scholar
Samuel L. Popkin – early expert on rational
choice theory
Karl Popper – theorist, originated the open
society theory
Jewel Prestage – first African-American
woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science,
former Dean of the School of Public Policy
and Urban Affairs at Southern University.
Adam Przeworski – Democratic transitions
theorist, author of Democracy and Development;
member of the September Group
Robert D. Putnam – social capital theorist,
author of Bowling Alone
== R ==
Douglas W. Rae – equality theorist
Mahesh Rangarajan – Indian political analyst
and researcher with a focus on contemporary
Indian politics and the politics of wildlife
conservation in India
John Rawls – political philosopher
R. A. W. Rhodes – public administration
scholar, pioneer of the study of policy networks
in British government
Condoleezza Rice – former National Security
Advisor; former Secretary of State; professor
at Stanford University
Floyd M. Riddick – Parliamentarian of the
United States Senate from 1964 to 1974, and
developer of Riddick's Senate procedure
William H. Riker – 20th-century political
scientist who applied game theory to political
science
Patrick T. Riley – political theorist and
Kant scholar
David Rohde – Congress scholar
Stein Rokkan – expert on political parties
and movements, founder of the Institute for
Comparative Politics
Richard Rose – American political scientist,
Professor of Politics at the University of
Aberdeen
Richard Rosecrance – international relations
and political economy expert
Clinton Rossiter – American government and
constitutional history theorist
Susanne Hoeber Rudolph – scholar of political
economy and political economy, former American
Political Science Association president
John Ruggie – international relations theorist,
social constructivist
== S ==
Larry Sabato – University of Virginia professor,
director of the University of Virginia Center
for Politics, and popular political analyst
Scott Sagan – Stanford professor and notable
critic of deterrence theory
Slobodan Samardžić – research includes
political ideas and institutions, federalism,
constitutionalism, and European Union
David Samuels – comparativist scholar of
Brazilian politics and political institutions
Austin Sarat – public law specialist
Giovanni Sartori – comparativist, expert
on constitutional theory and party systems;
author of Parties and Party Systems
E.E. Schattschneider – early political parties
expert, author of Party Government and The
Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of
Democracy in America
Cliff Schecter – political commentator and
operative
Steven Schier – specialist in American Politics
Warner R. Schilling – specialist in international
relations and military technology
Gesine Schwan – political scientist, president
of the Viadrina European University, and nominated
twice as a candidate for the federal presidential
elections of Germany
James C. Scott – political economist, Southeast
Asia area specialist
Hossein Seifzadeh – Iranian Professor of
Political Science at University of Tehran;
expert on strategic and security issues in
the Middle East
Mitchell A. Seligson – Centennial Professor
of Political Science Vanderbilt University;
founder of Latin American Public Opinion Project
and AmericasBarometer
Donna Shalala – former United States Secretary
of Health and Human Services
Matthew Soberg Shugart – scholar of constitutional
design and electoral systems
Yekaterina Shulman – scholar specializing
in lawmaking
Beth Simmons – international relations scholar
focusing on human rights
Herbert A. Simon – Nobel Prize-winning professor
at Carnegie Mellon; a founder of artificial
intelligence research; received his Ph.D in
political science from the University of Chicago
Theda Skocpol – comparative sociologist;
former president of American Political Science
Association, Harvard University
Stephen Skowronek – presidency and American
political development scholar (Yale University)
Anne-Marie Slaughter – scholar of international
relations, former president of the American
Society of International Law
Jean Edward Smith – political economist,
biographer, international relations, constitutional
law
Rogers Smith – Pulitzer Prize finalist,
American politics expert at the University
of Pennsylvania
Steven S. Smith – American politics, congressional
politics, Russian politics; Director, Weidenbaum
Center
Peverill Squire – Americanist
Michael Steed – British political scientist,
developed the concept of "Steed swing" as
distinct from "Butler swing"
Alfred Stepan – comparativist, Wallace S.
Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia
University
Zeev Sternhell – theorist, political historian
of political ideology
John G. Stoessinger – international relations
theorist, author of The Might of Nations:
World Politics in our Time
Donald Stokes – former Dean of the Woodrow
Wilson School at Princeton; expert on elections
Herbert Storing – American politics expert
Susan Strange – British expert in international
relations; taught at the London School of
Economics
Carol Swain – Professor of Law and Political
Science at Vanderbilt University; expert on
immigration and race
== T ==
Rein Taagepera – comparativist, expert on
electoral systems and history of government
Colin Talbot – Chair of Government at the
University of Manchester; adviser to various
Parliamentary Committees of the United Kingdom
Marco Tarchi – professor at University of
Florence, right-wing militant and creator
of Nouvelle Droite
Dennis Thompson – political theorist at
Harvard University
J. Ann Tickner – feminist international
relations theorist and current president of
the International Studies Association (ISA)
Virginia Tilley – specialist on the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict
Charles Tilly – professor at Columbia University,
his work includes contentious politics and
evolution of modern states
Herbert Tingsten – professor of political
science at Stockholm University
George Tsebelis – game theorist notable
for his general theory of veto players and
for describing the Robinson Crusoe fallacy
== V ==
Stephen Van Evera – MIT international relations
expert, known for proposing the Offense-Defense
theory
Tatu Vanhanen – democratization and ethnic
nepotism
Sidney Verba
Eric Voegelin – in his major work, Order
and History in five volumes, he rejected the
notion that political science should become
a positivistic social science
== W ==
Helen Wallace – international relations
specialist
Stephen Walt – international relations specialist
Kenneth N. Waltz – founder of the neorealist
international relations school
Michael Walzer – international relations,
just war theory
John Wanna – Sir John Bunting Chair of Public
Administration at the Australia and New Zealand
School of Government
Patricia A. Weitsman – international relations
scholar, alliance theory
Alexander Wendt – social constructivism
proponent
Darrell M. West – specialist in electronic
government, Brookings Institution director
of Governance Studies
John Henry Whyte – specialist in Northern
Irish politics
Aaron Wildavsky – author of Risk and Culture
Bruce A. Williams – specialist in American
politics
Danny Williams – Premier of Newfoundland
and Labrador
James Q. Wilson – former President of the
American Political Science Association
Woodrow Wilson – former Professor of Politics
at Princeton University and former US President
William Wohlforth – international relations
scholar
Ngaire Woods – founding dean of the Blavatnik
School of Government
Susan L. Woodward – professor at the graduate
program at The Graduate Center of the City
University of New York
== Y ==
Atilla Yayla – Professor of Politics, Political
Economy and Political Philosophy at Gazi University
in Turkey; president of the Association for
Liberal Thinking
M. Crawford Young – comparativist, Africa
scholar
== Z ==
Fareed Zakaria – international relations
expert
John Zaller – author of The Nature and Origins
of Mass Opinion; at UCLA
Elizabeth Zechmeister – comparativist at
Vanderbilt University, Latin American politics
and public opinion expert, Director of the
Latin America Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
== See also ==
Political theorist
Oxford Handbooks of Political Science
