Elmer Eric Schattschneider (August 11, 1892 – March 4, 1971) was an American

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

Life and career

Schattschneider was born in Bethany, Minnesota. He received his AB at the University of Wisconsin, MA at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, and his PhD at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He taught at Columbia, the New Jersey College for Women (now a section of

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

), and

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

(1930–1960). Schattschneider was president of the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political scientists in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, it publishes four ...

between 1956 and 1957 and is the namesake of its award for the best dissertation in the field of American politics. He died in

Old Saybrook, Connecticut Old Saybrook is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, Connecticut, Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 10, ...

Publications

Schattschneider's books include ''Politics, Pressures and the Tariff'' (1935), ''Party Government'' (1942), ''The Struggle for Party Government'', (1948), ''Equilibrium and Change in American Politics'' (1958), ''The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America'' (1960) (for a discussion see: Mair, 1997), and ''Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government'' (1969).

Critique of pluralism

Along with the

Theodore J. Lowi, Schattschneider offered perhaps "the most devastating" critique of the American

political theory Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from d ...

of pluralism: Rather than an essentially democratic system in which the many competing interests of

citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

are amply represented, if not advanced, by equally many competing interest groups, Schattschneider argued the pressure system is biased in favor of "the most educated and highest-income members of society", and showed that "the difference between those who participate in interest group activity and those who stand at the sidelines is much greater than that between voters and nonvoters." In ''The Semisovereign People'', Schattschneider argued the scope of the pressure system is really quite small: The "range of organized, identifiable, known groups is amazingly narrow; there is nothing remotely universal about it" and the "business or upper-class bias of the pressure system shows up everywhere." He says the "notion that the pressure system is automatically representative of the whole community is a myth" and, instead, the "system is skewed, loaded and unbalanced in favor of a fraction of a minority." And "the flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent."Schattschneider 1960, 35

Notes

References

*Adamany, David. 1972. "The Political Science of E. E. Schattschneider: A Review Essay." ''The American Political Science Review'' 66 (December): 1321–1335. *Schattschneider, Elmer Eric. 1960. ''The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America''. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. . * Woolley, Peter J. and Albert R. Papa. 1998. ''American Politics: Core Argument and Current Controversy''. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. .

External links

Elmer Eric E. E. Schattschneider Papers
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schattschneider, Elmer Eric University of Pittsburgh alumni 1892 births 1971 deaths Wesleyan University faculty Columbia University alumni 20th-century American political scientists