List of political scientists

This is a list of notable political scientists. See the list of political theorists for those who study political theory.

See also political science.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Part of a series on
Politics
Primary topics Index of politics articles Politics by country Politics by subdivision Political economy Political history Political history of the world Political philosophy
Political systems Anarchism City-state Democracy Federacy Feudalism Dictatorship Directorialism Meritocracy Monarchy Parliamentary Presidential Semi-presidential Theocracy
Academic disciplines Political science (political scientists) International relations (theory) Comparative politics
Public administration Bureaucracy (street-level) Adhocracy
Policy Public policy (doctrine) Public interest Foreign policy
Organs of government Separation of powers Legislature Executive Judiciary Electoral branch
Related topics Sovereignty Theories of political behavior Political psychology Biology and political orientation Political organisations
Subseries Electoral systems Elections (voting) Federalism Form of government Ideology Political campaigning Political parties
Politics portal

Notable political scientists

A

• Alan Abramowitz – Expert in American politics, political parties, ideological realignment, elections, and voting behavior.
• 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
• Nayef Al-Rodhan – philosopher, neuroscientist and geostrategist, and author of Sustainable history and the dignity of man, Emotional Amoral Egoism and Symbiotic Realism
• Ambedkar – Jurist, Economist and Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India
• William Anderson (political scientist) – Specialist in public administration
• 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.
• 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. Famous 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 who 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 who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. First person of color to win the Prize].
• Walter Dean Burnham – Expert in the field of realigning elections, emeritus at University of Texas at Austin.
• Charles Burton – Expert on China and Western nations' China policy
• David Butler, pioneer of modern British political science, invented the concept of swing.

C

• George Catlin – (1896–1979) was an English political scientist and philosopher. A strong proponent of Anglo-America cooperation, he worked for many years as a professor at Cornell University.
• Ira Carmen – Co-founder of the social science subdiscipline of genetics and politics.
• Edward Hallett Carr – Noted international relations theorist.
• Alfredo Castillero Hoyos – Democracy and Human Rights. Former member of the United Nations's Human Rights Committee.
• Partha Chatterjee – Indian postcolonial critic, political and social scientist.
• 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.
• Timothy E. Cook – politics and media
• Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri – International relations, Indology at Institute of Commonwealth Studies
• Philip Converse – Public opinion scholar, author of The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.
• Clyde Coombs – Voting systems expert, designed "Coombs' method"
• Philip Cowley – Author of Revolts and Rebellions.
• Ralph W. Conant – Author of The Prospects for Revolution and Toward a More Perfect Union: The Governance of Metropolitan America.

D

• Robert A. Dahl – American politics specialist, author of On Democracy (Yale University Press)
• Daniel Deudney – Writer and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University; author of Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village
• Karl Deutsch – Political scientist, focused on political communication.
• Larry Diamond – Comparative democratization specialist. Professor at Stanford University.
• Jouke de Vries – Frisian politician and professor at the university of Leiden.
• 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
• Maurice Duverger – French lawyer and sociologist responsible for Duverger's law.
• 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.
• 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)
• 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

• Scott Gates (academic) – Specialist in international relations
• Anthony Giddens – Noted 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.
• Donald Green – Professor of Political Science at Columbia University focusing on field experiments in American politics.
• 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
• Ted Robert Gurr – Specialist on conflict and violence
• Amy Gutmann – political theory expert; (2004–present) President of the University of Pennsylvania

H

• Jacob Hacker – Professor of Political Science at Yale University.
• 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 (1955).
• Colin Hay – influential British political scientist
• Marc Hetherington – Author of Why Trust Matters and offered 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?
• Donald L. Horowitz – Pioneered political science models for assessing ethnic conflict.
• Michael P. Howlett – Canadian political economy.
• Mark Huddleston – former President of Ohio Wesleyan University and President of the University of New Hampshire
• Samuel P. Huntington – Author of Clash of Civilizations, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, and a noted comparativist.

I

• Kancha Ilaiah – Dalit scholar and social scientist
• Ronald Inglehart – Professor at the University of Michigan and founder of the World Values Survey

J

• Gary Jacobson – United States Congress expert.
• Dayan Jayatilleka – Sri Lankan Diplomat, Political scientist and an author.
• 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

• 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, noted political theorist and 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.
• James Kurth
• Will Kymlicka – Originated the theoretical foundations of multiculturalism.

L

• Guy Laforest – Liberalism (John Locke) scholar and 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, had a Ph.D in Political Science.
• Richard Ned Lebow – Noted constructivist, Cold War expert, author of Tragic Vision of Politics.
• Michael Leifer – International relations, South Asian Studies, London School of Economics
• Robert C. Lieberman - Scholar of American politics and provost of Johns Hopkins University
• Arend Lijphart – Originator of consociationalism.
• Dan Lipinski – US House of Representatives (IL-D, 3rd)
• Juan Linz – Democracy specialist
• Seymour Martin Lipset – Renowned political theorist on democracy and development and parties. Taught at Stanford University.
• 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 to be the originator of historically based political science. Author of The Prince
• Harvey C. Mansfield – Political philosophy (Harvard University)
• Zeev Maoz – Arab-Israeli Conflict and international relations expert
• Jose M. Maravall – Political economist.
• David Marsh – influential British political scientist
• Juraj Marusiak – Slovak expert for Central and Eastern Europe
• David R. Mayhew – US legislative behavior and political parties expert.
• 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 – Noted international relations theorist and national security expert.
• Samuel Merrill III – Voting behavior and party competition.
• George Michael – specialist in right-wing extremism.
• Peter Middlebrook – political economist specialising in transition economies.
• 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, noted liberal IR theorist, specialist on European Union politics.
• Hans Morgenthau – Noted realist, international relations specialist.
• James D. Morrow – International relations expert and game theorist.
• 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 – Director of the University of Cambridge Centre for Rising Powers
• Antonio Negri
• Franz Leopold Neumann – known for analysis of National Socialism.
• David Nolan (libertarian) – founder of the United States Libertarian Party
• Douglass North – Nobel laureate
• Philip Norton – British politics expert
• Pippa Norris – Harvard comparative political scientist
• 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, and winner of 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.
• Gleb Pavlovsky – Russian political scientist.
• Nelson W. Polsby – American politics scholar.
• Karl Popper – Theorist who invented the Open Society
• Samuel L. Popkin – Early expert on rational choice theory.
• Sergei M. Plekhanov – Russia relations expert
• 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
• 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.
• John Ruggie – International relations theorist, social constructivist.
• John Rawls – Political philosopher.

=== Shubham Rakesh -[ [University of Kohan]] ===

• 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 and expert on strategic and security issues in the Middle East
• Mitchell A. Seligson – Centennial Professor of Political Science Vanderbilt University and founder of Latin American Public Opinion Project and AmericasBarometer
• Donna Shalala – Former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Beth Simmons – Prominent international relations scholar focusing on human rights.
• 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.
• Matthew Soberg Shugart – Scholar of constitutional design and electoral systems.
• 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
• Herbert A. Simon – Nobel Prize winning professor at Carnegie Mellon. A founder of artificial intelligence research, he received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago
• Peverill Squire – Americanist
• Michael Steed – British political scientist, developed the concept of "Steed swing" as distinct from "Butler swing"
• Alfred Stepan – Comaparativist, 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 of immigration and race.

T

• Rein Taagepera – Comparativist, expert on electoral systems and history of government
• Colin Talbot - British political scientist. 2013 Chair of Government in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. Also adviser to various Parliamentary Committees of the United Kingdom.
• Dennis Thompson – Political theorist at Harvard University
• 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
• J. Ann Tickner – Feminist international relations theorist and current president of the International Studies Association (ISA)
• George Tsebelis – Game theorist notable for his general theory of Veto players and for describing the Robinson Crusoe fallacy
• Marco Tarchi – Professor at University of Florence, right-wing militant and creator of Nouvelle Droite

V

• Tatu Vanhanen – democratization and ethnic nepotism
• Stephen Van Evera – MIT international relations expert, known for proposing Offense-Defense theory
• Sidney Verba
• Eric Voegelin – 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
• 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 U.S. President
• William Wohlforth – International relations scholar
• 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, and president of the Association for Liberal Thinking.
• M. Crawford Young – Noted comparativist, Africa scholar.

Z

• Fareed Zakaria – International relations expert
• John Zaller – Author of The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, at UCLA.

See also

• Political theorist
• Lists of people
• Oxford Handbooks of Political Science

References