Political And Social Theorists Codexery

Seymour Martin Lipset

Sociologist and political scientist who theorized democracy and American exceptionalism.

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Seymour Martin Lipset

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Seymour Martin Lipset was an American sociologist and political scientist who studied democracy, social stratification, and public opinion.[1] At his death, The Guardian called him "the leading theorist of democracy and American exceptionalism".[2] Between 1979–1980 and 1992–1993, Lipset held the presidency of the American Political Science Association and the American Sociological Association respectively, a distinction no other individual has achieved.[1][3][2]

Life and work

Lipset was born in Harlem, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents and grew up in the Bronx.[4] He was active in the Young People's Socialist League as a young Trotskyist and graduated from City College of New York.[5] Lipset argued in Political Man (1960) that democracy requires institutions supporting both conflict and consensus.[2] His 1959 article "Some Social Requisites of Democracy" proposed that economic development leads to democracy, known as the Lipset hypothesis.[6][7]

Lipset was a strong supporter of Israel and served as president of American Professors for Peace in the Middle East.[8] Columbia University awarded Lipset a PhD in sociology in 1949.[5] In 1960, Lipset ended his membership in the Socialist Party; he subsequently characterized his political orientation as centrist, naming Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Weber as key intellectual influences.[9] A 1967 collaboration between Lipset and Stein Rokkan introduced critical juncture theory and also contributed substantially to cleavage theory.[10]

Lipset passed away at 84 years old due to complications arising from a stroke.[11]

What the cited sources add

The Guardian obituary notes that Lipset's analysis of support for Nazism as middle-class radicalism was among his most influential works.[2] The same source states that Lipset argued the weakness of socialism in the US reflected working-class heterogeneity.[2] The Guardian also reports that Lipset's notion of cross-cutting cleavages reducing political intensity was an enduring contribution.[2] The Guardian describes Lipset as one of the first neoconservatives because he stressed individualism in American culture.[2]

The Guardian notes that no living political scientist or sociologist was more frequently cited in the closing two decades of the 20th century.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Marks, "Seymour Martin Lipset: Scholar of democracy driven to understand American society", The Guardian, January 11, 2007; Martin, "Seymour Martin Lipset, Sociologist, Dies at 84", The New York Times, 4 January 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Marks, "Seymour Martin Lipset: Scholar of democracy driven to understand American society", The Guardian, January 11, 2007. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Seymour Martin Lipset", American Academy of Arts & Sciences; "S. M. Lipset", www.nasonline.org; "APS Member History", search.amphilsoc.org; Martin, "Seymour Martin Lipset, Sociologist, Dies at 84", The New York Times, 4 January 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martin, "Seymour Martin Lipset, Sociologist, Dies at 84", The New York Times, 4 January 2007; Enskenazi, "Remembering Seymour Lipset, 'most cited' political scientist", Jerusalem Post, 14 January 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: G., "Seymour Martin Lipset: Life and Work", The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2004, p. 583–601; Enskenazi, "Remembering Seymour Lipset, 'most cited' political scientist", Jerusalem Post, 14 January 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lipset, Seymour Martin. Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy. The American Political Science Review, Volume 53, Is (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lipset, "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy", The American Political Science Review, March 1959, p. 69–105; Diamond, "Thinking About Hybrid Regimes", Journal of Democracy, 2002, p. 21–35; Zakaria, "The Rise of Illiberal Democracy", Foreign Affairs, 1997, p. 22–43; Czegledi, "The Lipset Hypothesis in a Property Rights Perspective", 5 January 2015; "Harvard Kennedy School"; Korom, "The political sociologist Seymour M. Lipset: Remembered in political science, neglected in sociology", Eu en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Spencer, "Seymour Martin Lipset 1922–2006", Peace Magazine, April 2007, p. 15 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sullivan, "Political Scientist Seymour Lipset, 84; Studied Democracy and U.S. Culture", The Washington Post, 4 January 2007; "Lipset's Agrarian Socialism: A Re-examination", University of Regina Press, 2007, p. 63; Martin, "Seymour Martin Lipset, Sociologist, Dies at 84", The New York Times, 4 January 2007; Goldberg, "The Neoconservative Invention", National Review, 20 May 2003 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lipset, Seymour Martin; Rokkan, Stein (1967). "Cleavage structures, party systems, and voter alignments: an introduction". In Lipset, Seymour Martin; Rokkan, St (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Seymour Martin Lipset" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martin, "Seymour Martin Lipset, Sociologist, Dies at 84", The New York Times, 4 January 2007; Sullivan, "Political Scientist Seymour Lipset, 84; Studied Democracy and U.S. Culture", The Washington Post, 4 January 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Seymour Martin Lipset (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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The New York Times

Also in the Codexery

Seymour Martin Lipset · Social Scientists And SociologistsSeymour Martin Lipset · Sociologists And Cultural Theorists

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1. In what year was Seymour Martin Lipset born?

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Not quite. The answer is 1922.

2. In which place was Seymour Martin Lipset born?

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3. In what year did Seymour Martin Lipset die?

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Sources

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