Philippe C. Schmitter

Philippe C. Schmitter (born November 19, 1936) is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is Emeritus Professor of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute.

Career

Schmitter has a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1957, a licence from the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967.

Since 1967 he has been successively assistant professor, associate professor and professor in the Politics Department of the University of Chicago (1967–82), then at the European University Institute (1982–86 and 1997–2005) and at Stanford (1986–96). In 1996 he returned to the European University Institute, where he retired in 2004.

Awards In 2009, Schmitter won the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his "path-breaking work on the role of corporatism 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 in 2009, and the Mattei Dogan Prize awarded by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) to a scholar of high international reputation in recognition of their contribution to political science in 2009.

Corporatism In "Still the Century of Corporatism?" (1974), Schmitter reintroduced the concept of corporatism 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 comparative politics 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.

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): 75–88. 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: Routledge.

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 Press. 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: Routledge.

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, 2002 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. [Interview 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.