Philippe Schmitter Explained

Philippe C. Schmitter
Birth Date:November 19, 1936
Birth Place:Washington, D.C.
Influences:Guillermo O'Donnell
Doctoral Advisor:Ernst B. Haas
Awards:Johan Skytte Prize (2009)
Discipline:Political science
Doctoral Students:David Collier, Michael Goldfield

Philippe C. Schmitter (born November 19, 1936) is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is Emeritus Professor of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute.[1] [2]

Career

Schmitter has a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1957, a licence from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967.

When he was working on his dissertation on “Development and Interest Politics in Brazil from 1930–1965", he went to Rio de Janeiro in 1965 to teach at the Instituto de Ciências Socias da Universidade do Brasil, as part of initiative closely tied to the Alliance for Progress.[3]

Since 1967 he has been successively assistant professor, associate professor and professor in the Politics Department of the University of Chicago (1967–82), then at the European University Institute (1982–86 and 1997–2005) and at Stanford (1986–96). In 1996 he returned to the European University Institute, where he retired in 2004.[4]

Awards

In 2009, Schmitter won the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his "path-breaking work on the role of corporatism in modern democracies, and for his stimulating and innovative analysis of democratization". He also received the ECPR Lifetime Achievement Award by the European Consortium for Political Research in 2007,[5] the EUSA Award for Lifetime Achievement in European Studies by the European Union Studies Association in 2009, and the Mattei Dogan Prize awarded by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) to a scholar of high international reputation in recognition of their contribution to political science in 2009.[4]

Academic research

Schmitter has published widely on comparative politics, European and Latin America regional integration, transitions from authoritarian rule and democratization processes, and the intermediation of class, sectoral and professional interests.More recently he has been examining the possibilities for post-liberal democracy in North America and Europe.[6] [7]

Corporatism

In "Still the Century of Corporatism?" (1974),[8] Schmitter reintroduced the concept of corporatism to political science and distinguished between two types of corporatism: societal or liberal, corporatism, and the state or authoritarian corporatism. This work challenged pluralist theory. As described by Ming-sho Ho, societal, or liberal, corporatism, "is a form of economic tripartitism rooted in a “social partnership” between capital and labor so that public intervention in the market economy can be facilitated for stability and growth." In contrast, the state or authoritarian corporatism "emanates from the attempts for control by nondemocratic rulers and results in the creation of dominated and dependent interest associations."[9]

Democratization

Schmitter's main work on democratization is Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies (1986), with Guillermo O'Donnell.[10] This book was one of the most widely read and influential works in comparative politics during the 1980s and 1990s. O’Donnell and Schmitter proposed a strategic choice approach to transitions to democracy that highlighted how they were driven by the decisions of different actors in response to a core set of dilemmas. The analysis centered on the interaction among four actors: the hard-liners and soft-liners who belonged to the incumbent authoritarian regime, and the moderate and radical oppositions against the regime. This book not only became the point of reference for a burgeoning academic literature on democratic transitions, it was also read widely by political activists engaged in actual struggles to achieve democracy.[11]

Selected publications

In comparative politics

On the field of comparative politics

Resources on Philippe Schmitter and his research

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Philippe C. Schmitter Curricululm Vitae . July 30, 2009.
  2. Book: Munck. Gerardo L.. Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Snyder. Richard. 2007. Johns Hopkins University Press. 978-0-8018-8464-1. 306. en.
  3. Web site: Philippe Schmitter We Cannot Remain Silent.
  4. Philippe C. Schmitter and Marc Blecher, Politics as a Science: A Prolegomenon. London: Routledge, 2021, frontmatters.
  5. Web site: ECPR Lifetime Achievement Award Winners - ECPR Prizes and Awards. ecpr.eu.
  6. Web site: Philippe C. Schmitter . European University Institute.
  7. Web site: The Future of Representative Democracy . 2010-12-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110728094151/http://www.thefutureofrepresentativedemocracy.org/ . 2011-07-28 .
  8. Philippe C. Schmitter, “Still the Century of Corporatism?" (1974) The Review of Politics 36(1): 85–131.
  9. Ming-sho Ho, “State Corporatism,” in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism, eds. by Polly Rizova et al, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.
  10. Guillermo O’Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
  11. Gerardo L. Munck, “Democratic Theory After Transitions From Authoritarian Rule,” Perspectives on Politics Vol. 9, Nº 2 (2011): 333–43.

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