David Ernest Apter (December 18, 1924 – May 4, 2010) was an American

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and sociologist. He was Henry J. Heinz Professor of Comparative Political and Social Development and senior research scientist at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. He was born on December 18, 1924. He taught at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

(where he was the executive secretary of the Committee for the Comparative Study of New Nations), the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

, (where he was director of the Institute of International Studies), and Yale University, where he held a joint appointment in political science and sociology and served as director of the Social Science Division, chair of Sociology, and was a founding fellow of the Whitney Humanities Center. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1966. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, a Fellow of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...

, a Fellow of the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social and ...

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, a Fellow of the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The instit ...

, as well as a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

Lecturer. He did field research on development, democratization and political violence in Africa, Latin America, Japan (

Sanrizuka Struggle The Sanrizuka Struggle (三里塚闘争, ''Sanrizuka tōsō'') refers to a civil conflict and riots involving the Japanese government and the agricultural community of Sanrizuka, comprising organised opposition by farmers, local residents, and ...

etc.), and China. In 2006 he was the first recipient of the Foundation Mattei Dogan prize for contributions to Interdisciplinary research. Apter died in his home in

North Haven, Connecticut North Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 24,253. North Haven is home of the Quinnipiac University School of Health Sciences, the School of Nur ...

, from complications due to cancer on May 4, 2010.

Bibliography

Monographs

* * * * (Japanese, Turkish, and Indonesian editions subsequently published) * * (Japanese edition: Iwanami) * *

Essay collections

* :Received the Woodrow Wilson Foundation award for the best book of the year on government, politics, or international affairs)

Edited volumes

* * * *

References

External links

David Ernest Apter Papers (MS 1806).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Apter, David E. 1924 births 2010 deaths Northwestern University faculty University of Chicago faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Yale University faculty Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars American political scientists Antioch College alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from North Haven, Connecticut