Giovanni Sartori

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Giovanni Sartori (born May 13, 1924) is an Italian political scientist specializing in the study of comparative politics.

Born in Florence, in 1946 he was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Florence, Italy, and served as Dean of the newly formed Department of Political Science from 1969 to 1972. Sartori served as Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University from 1979 to 1994, and was later appointed Professor Emeritus. He contributes regularly as op-ed comentator of the leading Italian Newspaper "Corriere della Sera". He is a recipient of a Prince of Asturias Award.

Sartori has made lasting contributions to the fields of democratic theory, party systems and constitutional engineering. In particular, Sartori suggested that party systems should not be classified on the basis of the number of parties, but according to an evaluation of their mechanics, introducing the notion of a 'relevant party'. He is also an advocate of applying the knowledge acquired through the study of political science to the design of political institutions, in order to improve their performance.

[edit] Selected publications

Democrazia e definizioni. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1957.
Parties and Party Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-521-29106-2.
The Theory of Democracy Revisited. Chatham, N.J: Chatham House, 1987. ISBN 0-934540-49-7.
Comparative Constitutional Engineering. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994. ISBN 0-333-62967-1.
Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics The American Political Science Review: Vol. LXIV, no. 4