Jean Blondel (26 October 1929 – 25 December 2022) was a French

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 ...

specialising in

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 ...

. He was

Emeritus Professor ''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 ...

at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...

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 ...

, and visiting professor at the

University of Siena The University of Siena ( it, Università degli Studi di Siena, abbreviation: UNISI) in Siena, Tuscany, is one of the oldest and first publicly funded universities in Italy. Originally called ''Studium Senese'', the institution was founded in 1240 ...

Biography

Blondel graduated the

Institut d'Études Politiques An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

of Paris in 1953 and then attended

St Antony's College St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economic ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

from 1953 to 1955. After graduating with a B.Litt, he had returned to France for his military service and only then could conclude his studies on

central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and local government at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. Blondel became a lecturer at the University College of North Staffordshire (now

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

) from 1958 to 1963, a fellow 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 wo ...

in 1963-4 and then moved to the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

in 1964, where he founded the Department of Government. In 1969, he helped found the

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 ...

and directed it for ten years following its foundation meeting in 1970. He left Essex in 1984 and was appointed scholar of the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

in New York in 1984. In 1985, he became professor of political science at the

, a position he held until his retirement in 1994. Blondel died on 25 December 2022, at the age of 93.

Academic work

Blondel is particularly noted for the contributions he made to the theory of party systems, the comparative study of cabinets, and the relations between parties and governments. Latterly, he worked on the comparative approach to analysing

presidentialism A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separation ...

across the globe, with emphasis on the regions of Latin America, Africa and the former Soviet republics.

Honours

Blondel was a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

, 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, and ...

and the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

. In 2004, he was awarded the

Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science ), location=Uppsala, Sweden, date= The Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science ( sv, Skytteanska priset) was established in 1995 by the Johan Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University. The foundation itself goes back to the donation in 1622 from Joh ...

"for his outstanding contribution to the professionalisation of European political science, both as a pioneering comparativist and an institution builder". In recognition of his work, the

ECPR 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 ...

has since October 2003 awarded the annual Jean Blondel PhD Prize for the best thesis in politics nominated by a member institution in a given year. Blondel also held honorary doctorates from the Universities of

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

in the United Kingdom,

Louvain-la-Neuve Louvain-la-Neuve (, French for ''New Leuven''; wa, Li Noû Lovén) is a planned town in the municipality of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Wallonia, Belgium, situated 30 km southeast of Brussels, in the province of Walloon Brabant. The town was ...

in Belgium,

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

in Finland, and

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

in Italy.

Selected publications

* ''Voters, parties and leaders : the social fabric of British politics''. Harmondsworth :

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...

, 1973. * ''Political parties. A genuine case for discontent?''. London : Wildwood House, 1978. * ''The Discipline Of Politics''. London & Boston : Butterworths, 1981. * ''Political leadership : towards a general analysis''. London & Beverly Hills : SAGE, 1987. * Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) ''Cabinets in Western Europe ''. Basingstoke :

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

, 1988. * Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) ''Governing together : the extent and limits of joint decision-making in Western European cabinets''. New York :

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

, 1993. * Blondel, Jean and Maurizio Cotta (eds.) ''Party and government : an inquiry into the relationship between governments and supporting parties in liberal democracies''. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1996. * Blondel, Jean, Richard Sinnott, and Palle Svensson ''People and Parliament in the European Union : participation, democracy, and legitimacy

Oxford, England : Clarendon Press, 1998. * Blondel, Jean and Maurizio Cotta (eds.) ''The nature of party government : a comparative European perspective''. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000. * Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) ''Cabinets in Eastern Europe ''. Basingstoke : Macmillan, 2001. * Blondel, Jean. ''The Presidential Republic''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blondel, Jean 1929 births 2022 deaths Academics of Keele University Academics of the University of Essex French political scientists Members of Academia Europaea Yale University faculty University of Siena faculty European University Institute faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Brazilianists French male non-fiction writers Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford French expatriates in the United Kingdom French expatriates in the United States French expatriates in Italy People from Toulon