Mattei Dogan (16 October 1920 – 10 October 2010) was a Romanian-born French political sociologist and senior research officer emeritus of the

French National Center for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(CNRS) and professor emeritus of political science of the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. Over a period of 22 years, he also taught at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

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 ...

, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo, the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

, and the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. He was a foreign honorary member of the Romanian Academy from 1992, and he received the

CNRS Silver Medal The CNRS Silver Medal is a scientific award given every year to about fifteen researchers by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is awarded to a researcher for "the originality, quality and importance of their work, re ...

. Born in

Curtea de Argeș Curtea de Argeș () is a municipiu, city in Romania on the left bank of the river Argeș (river), Argeș, where it flows through a valley of the Southern Carpathians (the Făgăraș Mountains), on the railway from Pitești to the Turnu Roșu Pass ...

, Romania, he obtained a B.A. from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and an M.A. in History and Philosophy from

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

, where he subsequently received a doctorate. In 1953, he joined the CNRS in Paris. He chaired the Research Committee on Political Elites of the

International Political Science Association The International Political Science Association (IPSA) is an international scholarly association, founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949. IPSA is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world. During its history ...

(IPSA) and the Research Committee on Comparative Sociology of the

International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociol ...

(ISA). He was also the founder of the Foundation Mattei Dogan that is devoted exclusively to the

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

s, and which is recognized as a non-profit organization by both the French and American governments.

Works

His main research domains include

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

studies, international comparative analysis, and

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

approaches. His publications have dealt with the relationship between political behavior and religious behavior,

political legitimacy In political science, legitimacy is a concept which turns brute force into power. The right and acceptance of an authority, usually a governing law or a regime, at least formally, are impossible to be built on one's brute force, or to coerce peop ...

and the

ruling class In sociology, the ruling class of a society is the social class who set and decide the political and economic agenda of society. In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the class who own the means of production in a given society and apply ...

. He also worked on the society and political regime of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. His professional itinerary was marked by his affiliation with the Committee on Political Sociology ( ISA and IPSA), which played a pioneering role in comparative research and where he was in the company of scholars like

Giovanni Sartori Giovanni Sartori (; 13 May 1924 – 4 April 2017) was an Italian political scientist who specialized in the study of democracy, political parties, and comparative politics. He held faculty positions at University of Florence, European University ...

Seymour Martin Lipset Seymour Martin Lipset ( ; March 18, 1922 – December 31, 2006) was an American sociologist and political scientist. His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification, public opinion, and t ...

, Stein Rokkan, Richard Rose, Juan Linz, and other comparativists. During his long career, which spanned more than a half-century, he moved from empirical research on topics like voter behavior to more encompassing theoretical work, his last publication being "Is There A Ruling Class in France?".

Publications

* Dogan, Mattei (ed.),
Political Mistrust and the Discrediting of Politicians
" Leiden: Brill, 2005 * Dogan, Mattei (ed.),
Elite Configurations at the Apex of Power
" Leiden: Brill, 2003 * Dogan, Mattei., "Paradigms in the Social Sciences," in ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences,'' Volume 16, 2001 * Dogan, Mattei., "Political science and the other social sciences," in ''A new handbook of political science'', 1996

References

External links

Website of the Foundation Mattei Dogan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dogan, Mattei 1920 births 2010 deaths People from Curtea de Argeș French sociologists Romanian emigrants to France Sciences Po alumni University of Paris alumni Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research University of California, Los Angeles faculty Indiana University faculty Yale University faculty Academic staff of the University of Florence Honorary members of the Romanian Academy