Robert Bates

Robert Hinrichs Bates (born 1942) is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is Eaton Professor of the Science of Government in the Departments of Government and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. From 2000–2012, he served as Professeur associé, School of Economics, University of Toulouse.

An Africanist by training, Bates's research has been influential in comparative politics and the political economy of economic development. Bates has been a leading proponent of the use of rational choice theory and deductive methods in political science. Rural Responses to Industrialization: A Study of Village Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. Agricultural Development in Africa: Issues of Public Policy, co-editor Michael F. Lofchie. New York: Praeger Publishers, Special Studies on International Development, 1980. Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press, Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 1981. Paperback edition, 1984. Second edition, 2005. Chinese edition, 2001. Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Paperback edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 1987. Reprinted, Cambridge University Press, 2008. Toward A Political Economy of Development: A Rational Choice Perspective, editor and co-author. Berkeley: University of California Press, Series in Social Choice and Political Economy, 1988. Special issue of Politics and Society, edited with Margaret Levi, vol 16, nos. 2-3 (June–September 1988). Beyond the Miracle of the Market: The Political Economy of Agrarian Development in Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Paperback edition, 1992. Second edition, 2005. Chinese edition 2008. Political and Economic Interactions in Economic Policy Reform. Co-authored and co-edited with Anne O. Krueger. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993. Africa and the Disciplines: The Contribution of African Studies to the Humanities and Social Sciences. Editor with Jean O'Barr and V. S. Mudimbe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Open Economy Politics: The Politics and Economics of the International Coffee Market. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Books of 1997. Spanish edition 2006. Analytic Narratives, with Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry Weingast. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. Chinese edition, 2008. Prosperity and Violence: The Political Economy of Development. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. Second edition in press. Co-author with Benno Ndulu et al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: An Analytic Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Co-editor with Benno Ndulu et al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: Case Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.