Barrington Moore, Jr.

Barrington Moore Jr. (12 May 1913 – 16 October 2005) was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.

He is well known for his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966), a comparative study of modernization in Britain, France, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Germany, and India. The book puts forth a neo-Marxist argument that class structures and class alliances at particular points in time can account for the kinds of social revolutions that occurred and did not occur in those countries, putting some countries on a path to democracy, whereas others were put on a path to authoritarianism or communism. He famously argued, "no bourgeois, no democracy," which emphasized the important role played by a large middle-class in accomplishing democratization and ensuring democratic stability.

Early life, education and career Moore was born in Washington D.C. in 1913. He worked as a policy analyst at the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and at the Department of Justice.

Moore's academic career began in 1945 at the University of Chicago. In 1948 he went to Harvard University, joining the Russian Research Center in 1951. He was emerited in 1979. as well as historian Jon Wiener.

Personal life While working at the OSS, Moore met his future wife, Elizabeth Ito, and Herbert Marcuse, who became a lifelong friend. Elizabeth died in 1992. They had no children.

Major works Early in his academic career, Moore was a specialist on Russian politics and society, authoring his first book, Soviet Politics in 1950 and Terror and Progress, USSR in 1954.

Moore's concern was the transformation of pre-industrial agrarian social relations into "modern" ones. He highlighted what he called "three routes to the modern world"—the liberal democratic, the fascist, and the communist—each deriving from the timing of industrialization and the social structure at the time of transition.

Moore challenged modernization theory by stressing that there was not one path to the modern world and that economic development did not always bring about democracy.

He drew particular attention to the violence which preceded the development of democratic institutions. Initially, Moore set out to study a large number of countries, but reduced his number of cases to eight.

Works Barrington Moore, Jr. Soviet Politics – The Dilemma of Power: The Role of Ideas in Social Change, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1950. Barrington Moore, Jr. Terror and Progress, USSR: Some Sources of Change and Stability in the Soviet Dictatorship, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1954. Barrington Moore, Jr. Political Power and Social Theory: Six Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1958. Erweiterte Ausgabe: Political Power and Social Theory: Seven Studies, Harper & Row, New York, 1965. Barrington Moore, Jr., Robert Paul Wolff, Herbert Marcuse: A Critique of Pure Tolerance, Beacon Press, Boston, 1965. Barrington Moore, Jr. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World, Beacon Press, Boston, 1966. . Barrington Moore, Jr. Reflections of the Causes of Human Misery and upon Certain Proposals to Eliminate Them, Beacon Press, Boston, 1972. Barrington Moore, Jr. Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt, M.E. Sharpe, White Plains, NY, 1978. . Barrington Moore, Jr. Privacy: Studies in Social and Cultural History, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 1983. Barrington Moore, Jr. Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism: USA, USSR, and China (Tanner Lectures on Human Values), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987. Barrington Moore, Jr. Moral Aspects of Economic Growth, and Other Essays (The Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture), Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1998. Barrington Moore, Jr.Moral Purity and Persecution in History, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000. .