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.

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.
• 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. 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.

S

• 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
• Omer Faruk Sen - Specialist in international relations. Member of 3H Movement.
• 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