For a while now, political science as a discipline has been big enough (in terms of the number of academics) and analytically mature enough to justify reflections on and reviews of its achievements. In fact, there is no lack of general handbooks, dictionaries and 'state of the art' assessments (as well as 'reflective' journals such as the ECPR's own European Political Science), which are useful in helping us to understand and evaluate where we currently are and where we might still need to go.
The focus of these texts, however, is on particular concepts, themes, research areas, institutions or behaviour. What they rarely do is indulge in a critical reflection on the political scientists themselves, especially those who are commonly accepted as having made the most significant contributions to the growth of their discipline. This book fills an important gap in the growing reflective literature on the political science discipline: it consists of a series of 'objective' profiles of the 'Masters of Political Science', written by political scientists who have read and studied their work and who are therefore in a position to evaluate the nature of their contributions. The Masters:Robert Dahl, Anthony Downs, David Easton, S. E. Finer, Samuel P. Huntington, Juan J. Linz, Seymour Martin Lipset, Giovanni Sartori, Sidney Verba, Aaron Wildavsky,Hans Morgenthau. Masters of Political Science was originally published in Italian by il Mulino Publishing House.
Also available: Maestri of Political Science Volume 2, ISBN: 9781907301193
All in all this is an excellent volume that sheds new light on the classics of political science. -- Paolo Morisi, 'Political Science Review'
Donatella Campus is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University
of Bologna. She is the author of L'elettore pigro. Informazione politica e
scelte di voto (Mulino, 2000); L'antipolitica al governo (Mulino, 2006); Comunicazione
Politica: Le nuove Frontiere (2008).
Gianfranco Pasquino is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna and Senior Adjunct Professor at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University. Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei, his most recent books are Italian Democracy. How It Works (Routledge 2020), Libertà inutile. Profilo ideologico dell’Italia repubblicana (UTET 2021), Tra scienza e politica. Una autobiografia (UTET 2022) and Il lavoro intellettuale (UTET 2023). He has co-edited The Oxford Handbookeonardi of Italian Politics (Oxford University Press 2015) and the Dizionario di Politica (UTET-De Agostini 2016, 4a ed., revised) and co-authored (with Riccardo Pelizzo), The Culture of Accountability. A Democratic Virtue (Routledge 2022).
Ian Budge is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He has made major contributions both to cumulative research on democracy and to organisational developments in the discipline. His earliest research on Glasgow and Belfast focused on causes of democratic breakdown. After a period of studying elections, voting behaviour, and party competition, he turned to public policy and how it might become responsive to popular preferences - a central democratic dilemma. His research covers direct and representative democracy.
Professor Budge founded the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis in 1968, and he was Executive Director of the European Consortium for Political Research, based at the University of Essex, between 1979 and 1983. Among his recent publications are, (with Klingemann et al), Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electorates and Governments 1945–1998 (2001), Elections, Parties, Democracy: Conferring the Median Mandate (with Michael D McDonald) (2005); The New British Politics (Ian Budge, David McKay, Kenneth Newton and John Bartle) (2007).
Donatella Campus is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University
of Bologna. She is the author of L'elettore pigro. Informazione politica e
scelte di voto (Mulino, 2000); L'antipolitica al governo (Mulino, 2006); Comunicazione
Politica: Le nuove Frontiere (2008).
Hans Daalder is Professor Emeritus at the University of Leiden. He is one of the founders of the European Consortium of Political Research, of which he was President from 1976 to 1979. Recently he edited Comparative European Politics: The Story of a Profession (1997; new paperback edition 1999).
Domenico Fisichella is a former Professor of Political Science at the University La Sapienza, Rome. He served in the Italian Senate (1994–2008) where was been Deputy Speaker for ten years. He was Minister of Cultural Affairs. Among his publications are Istituzioni politiche. Struttura e pensiero (1999); Denaro e democrazia. Dall'antica Grecia all'economia globale (2000); Politica e mutamento sociale (2002); Elezioni e democrazia. Un'analisi comparata (2003).
Giorgio Freddi is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna. He has been President of the European Consortium of Political Research. Among his publications, L'analisi comparata di sistemi burocratici pubblici (1968); Tensioni e conflitto nella magistratura (1978); Controlling Medical Professionals. The Comparative Politics of Health Governance (1989); Scienza dell'amministrazione e politiche pubbliche (1989).
Ursula Hoffmann-Lange is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bamberg. Among her publications are Social and Political Structures in West Germany: From Authoritarianism to Postindustrial Democracy (Westview Press, 1991); Eliten, Macht und Konflikt in der Bundesrepublik. (Leske & Budrich, 1992); Jugend und Demokratie in Deutschland (Opladen: Leske & Budrich 1995).
Hans-Dieter Klingemann is Professor Emeritus, Social Science Research Center, Berlin. Among his recent publications are Public Information Campaigns (with A Roemmele) (Sage Publications, 2001); Mapping Policy Preferences (with I Budge et al) (Oxford University Press, 2001); Russell J Dalton and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, eds. 2007 The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2009); The comparative Study of Electoral Systems (2009).
Keiko Ono (PhD in political science from Georgetown University) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science of Millikin University. Before returning to graduate school to pursue her degrees in political science, Ono worked as a journalist in Washington, DC. She has published book chapters and articles on US elections and public opinion.
Angelo Panebianco is Professor of International Relations at the University of Bologna. He also teaches Political Theory at San Raffaele University of Milan. Among his recent publications, Guerrieri democratici: Le democrazie e la politica di potenza (1997), Il potere, lo stato e la libertà (2004); L'automa e lo spirito (2009).
Gianfranco Pasquino is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna and Senior Adjunct Professor at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University. Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei, his most recent books are Italian Democracy. How It Works (Routledge 2020), Libertà inutile. Profilo ideologico dell’Italia repubblicana (UTET 2021), Tra scienza e politica. Una autobiografia (UTET 2022) and Il lavoro intellettuale (UTET 2023). He has co-edited The Oxford Handbookeonardi of Italian Politics (Oxford University Press 2015) and the Dizionario di Politica (UTET-De Agostini 2016, 4a ed., revised) and co-authored (with Riccardo Pelizzo), The Culture of Accountability. A Democratic Virtue (Routledge 2022).
Philippe C Schmitter is Professor Emeritus at the European University Institute's Department of Political and Social Sciences. He founded and directed the Center for European Studies at the University of Stanford. Among his publications are Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy (with Guillermo O'Donnell, 4 vols, 1986); Governance in the European Union (with Gary Marks, Fritz Scharpf and Wolfgang Streeck, 1996), How to Democratize the European Union… And Why Bother? (2000).
Clyde Wilcox is Professor in the Government Department at Georgetown, Washington. His research interests centre on public opinion and electoral behaviour, religion and politics, and gender politics. His latest books include Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective (2002); The Financiers of Congressional Elections: Investors, Ideologues, and Intimates (2003); The Values Campaign: The Christian Right in the 2004 Elections, co-edited with John Green and Mark Rozell (2006); The Interest Group Society (with M Berry, 2008).
