Ruth Caridad Silva (1920 or 1921—April 1, 1995) was an American

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 ...

. She was a scholar of presidential succession and

apportionment The legal term apportionment (french: apportionement; Mediaeval Latin: , derived from la, portio, share), also called delimitation, is in general the distribution or allotment of proper shares, though may have different meanings in different c ...

in the United States. She spent much of her career at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

Life and career

Silva attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where she received her bachelor of arts degree and master of arts degree in 1943, and completed her PhD in 1948. After her PhD, she became an instructor at Wheaton College. In 1948, she became a professor at Pennsylvania State University, where she worked for the remainder of her career. In 1952–1953 she worked as Fulbright Professor at

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

(then King Fuad I University). In 1951, Silva published ''Presidential Succession''. The book devoted five chapters to the intricacies of presidential succession laws in the United States, and ended with a study of presidential succession-related policies. She conducted research for many years on the procedures for replacing presidents who were no longer able to perform their responsibilities. In 1962, Silva published the book ''Rum, Religion, and Votes: 1928 Re-examined''. The book studied the

1928 United States presidential election The 1928 United States presidential election was the 36th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1928. Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover defeated the Democratic nominee, Governor Al Smith of New York. After ...

, focusing in particular on the question of why

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...

suffered such a lopsided defeat, and examining the extent to which it was due to prejudice against his Catholicism. The book was particularly noted for its use of multivariable regressions to analyze elections, which was then a new application of a methodology that had been made possible by recent advancements in computing. Other work by Silva concerned political systems in the United States, including voting procedures and institutions like presidential primaries. In 1960, Silva prepared the report ''Legislative Apportionment'' for the New York State Temporary Commission on Revision and Simplification of the Constitution.

Selected works

*''Presidential Succession'' (1951) *''Rum, Religion, and Votes: 1928 Re-examined'' (1962) *''American Government Democracy and Liberty in Balance'', with Edward Keynes, Hugh A. Bone, and David W. Adamany (1976)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Ruth C. 1995 deaths University of Michigan alumni Wheaton College (Massachusetts) faculty Pennsylvania State University faculty Academic staff of Cairo University American women political scientists American political scientists 20th-century American women writers American women academics