Jean Blondel (26 October 1929 – 25 December 2022) was a French

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 ...

specialising in

comparative politics Comparative politics is a field in political science characterized either by the use of the '' comparative method'' or other empirical methods to explore politics both within and between countries. Substantively, this can include questions relat ...

. He was

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral research-intensive university and an intergovernmental organisation with juridical personality, established by its founding member states to contribu ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, and visiting professor at the

University of Siena The University of Siena (, abbreviation: UNISI), located in Siena, Tuscany, holds the distinction of being Italy's first publicly funded university as well as one of the oldest, originally established as ''Studium Senese'' in 1240. As of 2022, it ...

Biography

Blondel graduated the Institut d'Études Politiques of Paris in 1953 and then attended

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics, politic ...

from 1953 to 1955. After graduating with a B.Litt, he had returned to France for his military service and only then could conclude his studies on central and local government at

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. Blondel became a lecturer at the University College of North Staffordshire (now

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

) from 1958 to 1963, a fellow at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1963-4 and then moved to the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

in 1964, where he founded the Department of Government. In 1969, he helped found the European Consortium for Political Research and directed it for ten years following its foundation meeting in 1970. He left Essex in 1984 and was appointed scholar of the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her re ...

in New York in 1984. In 1985, he became professor of political science at the

, a position he held until his retirement in 1994. Blondel died on 25 December 2022, at the age of 93.

Academic work

Blondel is particularly noted for the contributions he made to the theory of party systems, the comparative study of cabinets, and the relations between parties and governments. Latterly, he worked on the comparative approach to analysing presidentialism across the globe, with emphasis on the regions of Latin America, Africa and the former Soviet republics.

Honours

Blondel was a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

and the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

. In 2004, he was awarded the

Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science The Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science () was established in 1995 by the Johan Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University. The foundation itself goes back to the donation in 1622 from Johan Skytte (1577–1645), politician and chancellor of th ...

"for his outstanding contribution to the professionalisation of European political science, both as a pioneering comparativist and an institution builder". In recognition of his work, the ECPR has since October 2003 awarded the annual Jean Blondel PhD Prize for the best thesis in politics nominated by a member institution in a given year. Blondel also held honorary doctorates from the Universities of

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

and

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in the United Kingdom,

Louvain-la-Neuve Louvain-la-Neuve (; French for "New Leuven"; ) is a planned town in the municipality of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Wallonia, Belgium, situated 30 km southeast of Brussels, in the province of Walloon Brabant. The town was built to house th ...

in Belgium,

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

in Finland, and

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

in Italy.

Selected publications

* ''Voters, parties and leaders : the social fabric of British politics''. Harmondsworth :

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 1963. * ''An Introduction to Comparative Government''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969. * ''Comparative legislatures''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J :

Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was a major American educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth century. In its last few years it ...

, 1973. * ''Political parties. A genuine case for discontent?''. London : Wildwood House, 1978. * ''The Discipline Of Politics''. London & Boston : Butterworths, 1981. * ''Political leadership : towards a general analysis''. London & Beverly Hills : SAGE, 1987. * Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) ''Cabinets in Western Europe ''. Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1988. * Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) ''Governing together : the extent and limits of joint decision-making in Western European cabinets''. New York :

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

, 1993. * Blondel, Jean and Maurizio Cotta (eds.) ''Party and government : an inquiry into the relationship between governments and supporting parties in liberal democracies''. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1996. * Blondel, Jean, Richard Sinnott, and Palle Svensson ''People and Parliament in the European Union : participation, democracy, and legitimacy

Oxford, England : Clarendon Press, 1998. * Blondel, Jean and Maurizio Cotta (eds.) ''The nature of party government : a comparative European perspective''. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000. * Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) ''Cabinets in Eastern Europe ''. Basingstoke : Macmillan, 2001. * Blondel, Jean. ''The Presidential Republic''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blondel, Jean 1929 births 2022 deaths Academics of Keele University Academics of the University of Essex French political scientists Members of Academia Europaea Yale University faculty Academic staff of the University of Siena Academic staff of the European University Institute Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Brazilianists French male non-fiction writers Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford French expatriates in the United Kingdom French expatriate academics in the United States French expatriates in Italy People from Toulon Scientists from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur