Philippe C. Schmitter (born November 19, 1936) is 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 ...

specializing 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 is Emeritus Professor of the Department of Political and Social Sciences 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 ...

Career

Schmitter has a B.A. from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1957, a licence from the

Graduate Institute of International Studies Graduate may refer to: Education * The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree ** Alumni, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution * High school graduate, someone who has completed hi ...

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 Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

in 1965 to teach at the Instituto de Ciências Socias da

Universidade do Brasil The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites ...

, as part of initiative closely tied to the

Alliance for Progress The Alliance for Progress () was an initiative launched by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, that aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico was a close ...

. Since 1967 he has been successively assistant professor, associate professor and professor in the Politics Department of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

(1967–82), then at the

(1982–86 and 1997–2005) and at

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

(1986–96). In 1996 he returned to the European University Institute, where he retired in 2004.Philippe C. Schmitter and Marc Blecher, ''Politics as a Science: A Prolegomenon''. London: Routledge, 2021, frontmatters.

Awards

In 2009, Schmitter won 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 "path-breaking work on the role of

corporatism Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...

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, the EUSA Award for Lifetime Achievement in European Studies by the

European Union Studies Association The European Union Studies Association (EUSA), founded 1988, is a scholarly and professional association with its focus on the European Union, the processes of its integration, and its transatlantic relations. It notes valuable contributions to Eur ...

in 2009, and the Mattei Dogan Prize awarded by 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) to a scholar of high international reputation in recognition of their contribution to political science in 2009.

Academic research

Schmitter has published widely on

, 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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Corporatism

In "Still the Century of Corporatism?" (1974), Schmitter reintroduced the concept of

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."

Democratization

Schmitter's main work on democratization is ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies'' (1986), with Guillermo O'Donnell. This book was one of the most widely read and influential works in

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.Gerardo L. Munck, “Democratic Theory After ''Transitions From Authoritarian Rule'',” ''Perspectives on Politics'' Vol. 9, Nº 2 (2011): 333–43.

Selected publications

In comparative politics

* Schmitter, Philippe C. 1971. ''Interest Conflict and Political Change in Brazil''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 1974. “Still the Century of Corporatism?" ''The Review of Politics'' 36(1): 85–131. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 1978. "Reflections on Mihaïl Manoilescu and the Political Consequences of Delayed- Dependent Development on the Periphery of Western Europe," pp. 117–139, in K. Jowitt (ed.), ''Social Change in Romania 1860-1940''. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies. * Schmitter, Philippe C., and Gerhard Lehmbruch (eds.). 1981. ''Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation''. London: Sage Publications. * Lehmbruch, Gerhard, and Philippe C. Schmitter. 1982. ''Patterns of Corporatist Policy-Making''. London: Sage Publications. * Streeck, Wolfgang, and Philippe C. Schmitter. 1985. "Community, market, state—and associations? The prospective contribution of interest governance to social order". ''European Sociological Review'' Volume 1, Issue 2: 119–138. * Schmitter, Philippe C., and Guillermo O'Donnell. 1986. ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. * Schmitter, Philippe C., Guillermo O'Donnell, and Laurence Whitehead (eds.). 1986. ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule. Prospects for Democracy'' 4 Vols. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. * Schmitter, Philippe C., and Terry Lynn Karl. 1991. “What Democracy Is. . . and Is Not.” ''Journal of Democracy'' 2(3): 75–8

* Terry Lynn Karl, and Philippe C. Schmitter. 1991. "Modes of Transition in Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe." ''International Social Science Journal'' No. 128 (May): 269–284. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 1992. "The Consolidation of Democracy and Representation of Social Groups." ''American Behavioral Scientist'' Vol. 35, Nos. 4–5: 422–449. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 1995. “The Consolidation of Political Democracies,” pp. 535–570, in Geoffrey Pridham (ed.), ''Transitions to Democracy''. Aldershot: Dartmouth. * Marks, Gary, Fritz W. Scharpf, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Wolfgang Streeck. 1996. ''Governance in the European Union''. London: Sage. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 1999. ''Portugal: do autoritarismo à democracia''. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 2000. ''How to Democratize the European Union ....and Why Bother?'' Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield. * Schmitter, Philippe C., and Marc Blecher. 2021. ''Politics as a Science: A Prolegomenon''. London: Routledg

On the field of comparative politics

* Schmitter, Philippe C. 1993. "Comparative Politics," pp. 171–177, in Joel Krieger (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World''. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Pres

* Schmitter, Philippe C. 2002. "Seven (disputable) theses concerning the future of 'transatlanticised' or 'globalised' political science". ''European Political Science'' 1: 23–40. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 2009. “The Nature and Future of Comparative Politics.” ''European Political Science Review'' 1(01): 33–61. * Schmitter, Philippe C. 2016. "Comparative Politics: its Past, Present and Future." ''Chinese Political Science Review'' volume 1: 397–411. * Schmitter, Philippe C., and Marc Blecher. 2021. ''Politics as a Science: A Prolegomenon''. London: Routledg

Resources on Philippe Schmitter and his research

* Colin Crouch and Wolfgang Streeck (eds.). 2006. ''The Diversity of Democracy: Corporatism, Social Order and Political Conflict''. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. * James N. Green. 2002. "Interview with Philippe Schmitter". San Francisco, tape December 18, 200

* Munck, Gerardo L. and Richard Snyder. 2007. "Corporatism, Democracy, and Conceptual Traveling,” pp. 305–350, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, ''Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics''. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press. nterview with Philippe Schmitter.* Schmitter, Philippe C. 1997. “Autobiographical Reflections: or how to live with a conceptual albatross around one’s neck,” pp. 287–297, in Hans Daalder (ed.), ''Comparative European Politics. The Story of a Profession''. New York: Casell/Pinter.

References

External links

Philippe C. Schmitter Google Scholar profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmitter, Philippe American political scientists 1936 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni University of Chicago faculty Stanford University faculty European Union and European integration scholars Brazilianists