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SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET: MODERNIZZAZIONE, STRUTTURA SOCIALE E CULTURA POLITICA COME FATTORI DELLO SVILUPPO DEMOCRATICO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2018

Ursula Hoffmann-Lange

Introduzione

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Seymour Martin Lipset è indubbiamente uno dei maggiori scienziati sociali del ventesimo secolo, «che ha plasmato, forse più di ogni altro scienziato sociale contemporaneo, lo studio delle condizioni, dei valori e delle istituzioni della democrazia negli Stati Uniti e in tutto il mondo (Marks 1995, 765). I suoi contributi sia alla scienza politica che alla sociologia sono straordinari. È l'unico ad essere stato sia Presidente dell'American Political Science Association (1979-80), sia dell'American Sociological Association (1992-3). È stato anche Presidente o vice Presidente di molte altre associazioni professionali americane e internazionali, come la International Society of Political Psychology, la World Association for Public Opinion Research, e la Society for Comparative Research. Le sue attività in queste associazioni testimoniano l'ampio spettro degli interessi accademici di Lipset, che vanno dalla politica comparata alla stratificazione sociale. Lipset ha anche ricevuto molti riconoscimenti, come fellowships da prestigiose istituzioni accademiche (ad es. il Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences di Stanford), premi da associazioni professionali, e non meno di sette Ph. D. onorari.

Summary

Summary

Seymour Martin Lipset is one of the most productive and innovative social scientists of the 20th century. Some of his many books and articles have become classic texts, in particular his seminal book Political Man (1960). Despite the broad scope of his work, Lipset's writings have one single focus, i.e. the study of democracy. He has studied the social and political factors conducive to democratization and the stability of democracy, taking into account social structural conditions, the role of intermediary organizations, political culture, electoral behavior and political leadership. His work is theoretical as well as empirical, and his perspective has always been a comparative one, referring to practically all major world regions. Lipset was the first to put forward the idea that socioeconomic development is an important precondition for democratic development and that economic success may in turn contribute to legitimize newly democratized regimes. He has also emphasized the central importance of a competitive party system for sustaining (intra-organizational) democracy. As an American, Lipset has finally always been intrigued by the exceptional character of American democracy which he traces back to a historically unique combination of favorable circumstances at the time of its foundation, i.e. of social structural conditions (high levels of social mobility), a specific value system (individualism, equality of opportunities, religiosity) and the availability of political leaders intent on creating a republic based on popular sovereignty that was without precedent at the time.

Type
Saggi
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , December 2003 , pp. 451 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna 

References

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