About the Department
From the very beginning, the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago has been a pioneer in the development of social scientific understandings of government and politics. Harold Gosnell, Harold Lasswell, Grant McConnell, Duncan MacRae, Charles Merriam, Hans Morgenthau, Herbert Storing, Leo Strauss, Leonard White, and Quincy Wright all taught at Chicago. Gabriel Almond, V.O. Key, Harold Lasswell, Robert Martin, Herman Pritchett, David Truman, and Herbert Simon—the first political scientist ever awarded a Nobel Prize for his intellectual achievements—all received their doctorates from Chicago. "The Chicago department was the cutting edge of development of the field of political science," Pritchett recalled of his days as a graduate student. "The students who were graduate students when I was became the leaders of the profession."
Much has changed at Chicago since Pritchett studied here, but fortunately the most important things have not. The University of Chicago and its Political Science Department have maintained the unabashed intellectualism, the disregard for disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries, the commitment to diversity of approach and method, and the pure appreciation of fine scholarship that have always been the distinguishing features of this institution. David Easton's recollections of the department ring true even today: "Chicago seemed like the Tiber River—violent rapids, churning, exciting, adventurous, and bubbling over with ideas. I felt as though I had come alive intellectually . . . . It was just one great intellectual high."
We the members of the department believe that Chicago is the most exciting and challenging university in the world. We hope you will come see for yourself.
Events
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) has awarded Professor Dawson's book, "Behind the Mule", for stimulating theoretical and scientific research in public opinion and influe
Professor Howell is one of a select group of fellows making their mark in the social sciences, the natural sciences, the humanities, and the creative arts.
Professor Gehlbach has been named the Elise and Jack Lipsey Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Harris School of Public Policy and the College.
Professor Cordelli has been awarded the 2022 Elizabeth D.
Professor Cordelli was awarded the prize by the British Academy for her essay Freeing People, Restricting Capital.
News
Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts:
Did the Unipolar Moment Ever End?
Professor Howell's center will collaborate with the Sun-Times and WBEZ on a project to educate our community about the threat to our democracy and how we can form "a more perfect union", in the run
Read Professor Albertus's op-ed in Foreign Policy.
Strategy, Secrecy, and External Support for Insurgent Groups by Paul Staniland and Avinash Paliwal.
Co-edited by Professor Staniland for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace