Giovanni Sartori
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Giovanni Sartori (; 13 May 1924 – 4 April 2017) was an Italian
political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...
who specialized in the study of
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
,
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
and
comparative politics Comparative politics is a field in political science characterized either by the use of the ''comparative method'' or other empirical methods to explore politics both within and between countries. Substantively, this can include questions relatin ...
.


Biography

Born in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
in 1924, Sartori graduated in Political and Social Sciences at the
University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...
in 1946. He stayed on at the University of Florence, teaching History of Modern Philosophy and Doctrine of the State starting in 1946. He became a lecturer in Modern Philosophy (1950–56) and in Political Science (1956–63), and subsequently professor of Sociology (1963–66). Sartori became full professor of Political Science and taught at Florence University from 1966 to 1976. During this time, Sartori founded the first modern Political Science academic post in Italy, and was Dean of the newly formed University of Florence's Department of Political Science. Sartori also taught at the European University Institute (1974–76) and then became professor of Political Science at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
(1976–79). Finally, Sartori served as Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
from 1979 to 1994 and was appointed
professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
br>
Sartori was President of the Committee for Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (COCTA) of IPSA, the
International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociolo ...
(ISA), and the
International Social Science Council The International Social Science Council (ISSC) was an international non-governmental organization promoting the social sciences, including the economic and behavioural sciences. It was founded in Paris, France between 6 and 9 October 1952, un ...
(ISSC) from 1970 to 197

He was founder and editor of the ''Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica'' (''Italian Political Science Review'') from 1971 to 200

Sartori was also a regular contributor, as an op-ed writer, of the leading Italian newspaper ''
Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...
''. Sartori died at the age of 92 in Rome from
throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...
on 4 April 2017.


Honors and awards

Giovanni Sartori received multiple honors and awards throughout his career. * 1971 President of the Italian Republic’s Gold Medal for Cultural and Educational Merits. * 1975 Fellow of
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, and ...
* 1998 Outstanding Book Award of the
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...
(APSA) for ''Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis'' (1976). * 1999 Commander of the
Order of the Southern Cross Emperor Pedro I of Brazil founded the National Order of the Southern Cross ( pt, Ordem Nacional do Cruzeiro do Sul) as a Brazilian order of chivalry on 1 December 1822. The order aimed to commemorate the independence of Brazil (7 September 1822) ...
, Brazil. * 2005
Princess of Asturias Awards The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...
for Social Sciences * 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award,
European Consortium for Political Research The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) is a scholarly association that supports and encourages the training, research and cross-national cooperation of many thousands of academics and graduate students specialising in political sci ...
(ECPR

* 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award, Qualitative Method Section of APSA, for Exceptional Contributions to Social Science Methodology. * 2006 Life Achievement Award,
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...
. * 2007 The Mattei Dogan Foundation Prize in European Political Sociology, ECPR, University of Essex, England, Pisa. * 2009
Karl Deutsch Award The Karl Deutsch Award is awarded by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) each year an IPSA World Congress of Political Science is held. The recipient of the award presents the Karl Deutsch Lecture or leads a special session at t ...
of the
International Political Science Association The International Political Science Association (IPSA), founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949, is an international scholarly association. IPSA is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world. During its histor ...
(IPSA), which honours a prominent scholar engaged in the cross-disciplinary research. * 2013 Premio Isaiah Berlin. * 2014 Grand Cross of the
Order of Bernardo O'Higgins The Order of Bernardo O'Higgins ( es, Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins) is an award issued by Chile. It is the highest civilian honor awarded to non-Chilean citizens. This award was established in 1965 and named after one of the founders of the Chilean ...
, Chile In 2015, he received a Mexican ''venera'' of the
Order of the Aztec Eagle The Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle ( es, Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca) forms part of the Mexican Honours System and is the highest Mexican order awarded to foreigners in the country. History It was created by decree on December 29, 193 ...
from president
Enrique Peña Nieto Enrique Peña Nieto (; born 20 July 1966), commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican politician who served as the 64th president of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party ...
. He has received doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Genoa, 1992; Georgetown University, Washington D.C.,1994; University of Guadalajara, 1997; University of Buenos Aires, 1998; Complutense University of Madrid, 2001; University of Bucharest, 2001; University of Athens. Since 2004, the
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...
(APSA) Organized Section for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research gives the Giovanni Sartori Book Award annually to "honors Giovanni Sartori's work on qualitative methods and concept formation, and especially his contribution to helping scholars think about problems of context as they refine concepts and apply them to new spatial and temporal settings."


Research

Sartori's interests were wide-ranging, but his lasting contributions were largely on political parties, constitutional design, and perhaps most significantly, concept analysis.


On concepts

Sartori was deeply interested in the formation, analysis, and use of political concepts. He observed that political science, for better or worse, lacked the coordination in terminology that he presumed to exist in the physical and biological sciences. He encouraged a more "intentional" use of concepts, with the objective of furthering a shared understanding of ideas. In 1970, he and others established the first permanent research committee of the newly created
International Political Science Association The International Political Science Association (IPSA), founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949, is an international scholarly association. IPSA is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world. During its histor ...
(IPSA). The committee
Research Committee on Concepts and Methods
(RC 01), was intended to ameliorate the "Tower of Babel problem" in political science, and is still active. Sartori's 1970 article "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics" published in ''
The American Political Science Review The ''American Political Science Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of political science. It is an official journal of the American Political Science Association and is published on their behalf by Cambridge ...
'' is prominent in the field, leading Gary Goertz to write, "There are few articles in political science that deserve the predicate "classic," but Sartori's ... merits the label." Sartori's notions of "conceptual traveling" (the application of a concept from one case to a new case) and "conceptual stretching" (the mismatch that happens when a concept does not fit a new case) is influential in social science methodology. Conceptual stretching is frequently used as a criticism of studies that employ large-N quantitative analysis.


On parties and party systems

Sartori's ''Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis'' (1976) is a book that is seen as having as "outstanding, lasting significance to the field" on study on political parties.Peter Mair, "Introduction," in Giovanni Sartori, ''Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis''. Colchester; ECPR Press, 2005, p. xviii. The book provides a comprehensive and authoritative approach to the classification of party systems.


Selected publications

* Sartori, Giovanni. 1957. ''Democrazia e Definizioni''. Bologna: Il Mulino. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1962. ''Democratic Theory''. Detroit, Wayne University Press. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1966. "European Political Parties: The Case of Polarized Pluralism," pp. 137– 176, in J. LaPalombara and M. Weiner (eds.), ''Political Parties and Political Development''. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1969. "From the Sociology of Politics to Political Sociology," pp. 65–100, in S.M. Lipset (ed.), ''Politics and the Social Sciences''. New York, Oxford University Press. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1970. "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics." ''The American Political Science Review'' 64 (4): 1033–1053. * Sartori, Giovanni, Fred W. Riggs, and Henry Teune. 1975. ''Tower of Babel: On the Definition and Analysis of Concepts in the Social Sciences''. Pittsburgh: International Studies Association. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1976. ''Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis''. New York: Cambridge University Press. * Sartori, Giovanni (ed.). 1984. ''Social Science Concepts: A Systematic Analysis''. London, Sage. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1984. "Guidelines for Concept Analysis," pp. 15–85, in Giovanni Sartori (ed.), ''Social Science Concepts: A Systematic Analysis''. London, Sage. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1987. ''The Theory of Democracy Revisited'', vol. 1, ''The Contemporary Debate''; vol. 2, ''The Classical Issues''. Chatham, N.J: Chatham House. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1991. "Comparing and Miscomparing." ''Journal of Theoretical Politics'' (3)3: 243–257. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1994. ''Comparative Constitutional Engineering''. New York: New York University Press. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1994. "Neither Presidentialism nor Parliamentarism," pp. 106–118, in J.J. Linz e A. Valenzuela (eds.), ''The Failure of Presidential Democracy''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1997. ''Homo Videns: televisione e post-pensiero''. Rome-Bari: Laterza. * Sartori, Giovanni. 2000. ''Pluralismo, multiculturalismo e estranei: saggio sulla società multietnica''. Milan: Rizzoli. * Sartori, Giovanni. 2004. ''Mala tempora''. Rome-Bari: Laterza. * Sartori, Giovanni. 2006. ''Mala costituzione e altri malanni''. Rome-Bari: Laterza. * Sartori, Giovanni. 2009. ''Concepts and Method in Social Science. The Tradition of Giovanni Sartori''. Edited by David Collier and John Gerring, New York and London: Routledge.


Resources on Sartori and his research

* Collier David, and John Gerring. 2009. "Giovanni Sartori & His Legacy," in David Collier and John Gerring (eds.), Giovanni Sartori, ''Concepts and Method in Social Science. The Tradition of Giovanni Sartori''. New York and London: Routledge. * Cotta, Maurizio. 2017. "Sartori: a towering figure of international political science, the founder of contemporary Italian political science and a mordant political polemicist." ''European Political Science'' 16(3): 430–435. * Kubát, Michal, and Martin Mejstřík. (eds.). 2019. ''Giovanni Sartori. Challenging Political Science''. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. * Pasquino, Gianfranco (ed.). 2005. ''La Scienza Politica di Giovanni Sartori''. Bologna: Il Mulino. The chapters of this book are celebration notes by Italian scholars (Domenico Fisichella, Angelo Panebianco) that have had some kind of collaboration with Sartori. * Pasquino, Gianfranco. 2005. "The Political Science of Giovanni Sartori." ''European Political Science'' 4(1): 33–41. * Pasquino, Gianfranco. 2020. ''Bobbio y Sartori. Comprender y cambiar la política." Buenos Aires: Eudeba. * Rubí Calderón, José Ramón López (ed.). 2009. ''Para Leer a Sartori''. Mexico,. This book is in Spanish, featuring articles by Gianfranco Pasquino and
Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...
, and is wide in scope. Besides, it seems, is more critical and more student-oriented. It covers the very Political Science part of Sartori's bulk of work, as well as the books that he has published dealing with such themes as multiculturalism, "videopolitics" and the environment. * Sartori, Giovanni. 1999. "Chance, Luck and Stubborness," pp. 93-100, in Hans Daalder (ed.), ''Comparative European Politics. The Story of a Profession''. New York: Casell/Pinter. * Sartori, Giovanni. 2018. "Note biografiche e bibliografia.


See also

*
Polarized pluralism Polarized pluralism is a two-party or multi-party political system which is seen as overly polarized and therefore as dysfunctional. It was originally described by political philosopher Giovanni Sartori to define a system where moderate views are ...
*
Qualitative research Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This ...
*
Robert A. Dahl Robert Alan Dahl (; December 17, 1915 – February 5, 2014) was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He established the pluralist theory of democracy—in which political outcomes are ...
*
Maurice Duverger Maurice Duverger (5 June 1917 – 16 December 2014) was a French jurist, sociologist, political scientist and politician born in Angoulême, Charente. Starting his career as a jurist at the University of Bordeaux, Duverger became more and ...


References


External links


Sartori's biography on ItaliaLibri

Review of ''Pluralism, Multiculturalism and Foreigners: an Essay on Multiethnic Society''

Columbia University Giovanni Sartori videos
*
Gianfranco Pasquino Gianfranco Pasquino (born April 9, 1942 in Turin) is an Italian political scientist. Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna and Senior Adjunct Professor at SAIS-Europe (Bologna). He studied at the University of Turi ...
. (2005).
The Political Science of Giovanni Sartori
. European Political Science 4 (1), 33–41. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sartori, Giovanni 1924 births 2017 deaths Deaths from cancer in Lazio Deaths from throat cancer Columbia University faculty Academic staff of the European University Institute Italian male journalists Italian magazine editors Italian political scientists Academic staff of the University of Florence